Arsenal may be about to firm up their interest in a highly-rated Serie A midfielder.
The Gunners are in the market for midfielders this summer and amongst those linked are Manuel Locatelli of Sassulo. We brought you the first news of Arsenal’s interest in Locatelli last month.
In the latest development, according to a report in Gazzetta Dello Sport today, Arsenal are ready to put 40million euros on the table for Locatelli.
They will face a big fight with Juventus for his signature, though.
The report says Locatelli prefers Juventus but does ‘like’ Arsenal. The Gunners will hope that they can put together a more attractive package and win the race for his signature.
Locatelli is a very talented central midfielder who traditionally operates from the left side of central midfield, a position currently held by Granit Xhaka.
Xhaka is expected to leave the club this summer but Arsenal may wait until they have sold Xhaka before formalising any bid for Locatelli or other midfield targets.
This could simply be a negotiation tactic in order to extract as much as they can from Roma for Xhaka. Once Xhaka formalises a move away from the club, expect news of official bids from Arsenal to accelerate.
23-year-old Locatelli is currently at the Euros competing for Italy, who made an impressive start to the competition last week.
It looks likely that Locatelli will leave Sassulo this summer. Whether he joins Arsenal, Juventus or another club, any deal is unlikely to be concluded until Italy’s participation in the competition is concluded.