Mario Gomez to Napoli? The rumors are heating up

Media and fans alike have been debating about Mario Gomez's future in recent months since Pep Guardiola was announced as the new manager. Most of us (I wish I could say all, but I know there are some dissenters in every crowd.) would love for Mario to stay at Bayern for the foreseeable future, but we must face the realities of the sport. Gomez wants to be playing first team football for someone. He's good enough to be the number one option for a club.

Bild is now reporting that Gomez will be joining Napoli on a three year deal. They state that an adviser to Gomez, Uli Ferber, has met with Napoli to negotiate several times in recent weeks. Gomez is still under contract with Bayern through 2016, so a transfer fee of some sort would be involved.

However, Sky Sports is quoting Gomez's agent as saying that there have been no negotiations with Napoli at this time.

#MarioGomez Manager #OliverMintzlaff dementiert gegenüber #ssnhd: "Es hat keine Verhandlungen mit #SSCNeapel gegeben." #ssnhd

— Sky Sport News HD (@SkySportNewsHD) June 2, 2013

What can we make of this? This could all be negotiation tactics, or it could all be garbage. The honest likelihood of Gomez remaining with Bayern past this summer is probably not that high. As many have pointed out here and elsewhere, he doesn't fit into Guardiola's expected style.

If he does leave, you have to believe that Mario will have his choice of suitors out there. On his day, it's tough to find any big man up top that can do the job of knocking the ball into the back of the net better than Mario Gomez.

UPDATE (6/2/2013): Bild has updated their story. They're now claiming that Napoli will offer a €20 million transfer fee.