Arsenal has become the first club to put in an official bid for Manuel Locatelli this summer as he continues to shine for Italy at Euro 2020.
The Italian midfielder is a target for several top European clubs, but Arsenal is confident of winning the race for his signature.
Sassuolo wants 40m euros and they will sell to the suitor that pays the most money.
Arsenal has some disadvantage in this race considering that they cannot offer him European football next season.
As they struggle to sign him as an established star now, it has been revealed that they were made aware of his talent about five years ago.
Locatelli was 18 in 2016 and was breaking through at AC Milan but he had caught the attention of several scouts.
TalkSPORT reports that Arsene Wenger sent chief scout Neil Banfield to run the rule over him that year.
The Gunners didn’t follow up their interest in his signature and Milan would eventually sell him to Sassuolo after they signed Chelsea flop, Tiemoue Bakayoko.
Arsenal could have signed him for a lower transfer fee then, but he is set to cost them a fortune now and the competition for his signature is fierce.
Get ready for the anti AW brigade 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
“Arsene Wenger goes a fishing. He is happy he caught nothing”
It was during Wenger tenure: We missed out on Harry Kane, CR7, Mata, Zlatan, Eden Hazard, Etou, Yaya Toure and some other quality players.
All clubs missed on a lot of players, all of them. Do you think a player is usually set on joining only one club? They receive a lot of offers and they choose what is best for their interest so obviously the club they didn’t choose missed on them!
We can’t have all the players linked to us unless we have infinity cash and allowed to field 100 players.
Skills, CR7, Mata, Hazard, Etou and Yaya were all signed by clubs who offered them more money and a bigger transfer deal to the clubs they were at.
This now looks as if it could happen with City looking at signing White for example.
So before you start blaming ANY of our managers, try and understand that kronkie is the owner and makes the rules.
Exactly like every other club does too. But that never gets mentioned on an Arsenal site . Just as our near misses don’t get on other clubs sites either! As ever, honest context from me!
I realise certain fans do not appreciate context, of course!
Exactly Jon exactly.
We are wasting our time with this guy. There’s nothing he does better than Bissouma except being a better passer.
Actually He won’t ba missing the north London derby and some vital games. He’s a different type midfielder than Bissouma. Tell me Kev, if him he’s bought would you not have him? Do you think he’s a downgrade? The only weakness I see with his YouTube highlight is that he’s tall and a bit slow. The ell might be faster than his pace and that would mean a longer adaptation period…
Kev- you are normally very spot on with your player assessments but from what I have seen at the Euros this boy seems just the type of player we need.
I agree Bissouma is a decent CM but we desperately need a player who not only can sit in but also be able to break the lines. Locatelli looks perfect for this and IMO better value than Bissouma
👍
Every club has a list of “would be, could have, should haves”. The ones that really irk are ones you develop and then leave like Gnabry, Reis Adelaide and Malen. Liam “Chippy” Brady still has nightmares about under rating Harry Kane, when he was in charge at the Academy.