Arsenal insider Charles Watts seems to believe that the club will not be able to sign Italy midfielder Manuel Locatelli this summer.
The 23-year-old, currently playing for Sassuolo and valued at £31.5m on Transfermarkt, has been one of the breakout stars for the Italians during this summer’s European Championships, scoring two goals and racking up a WhoScored rating of 7.86 as Italy won all three of their opening games to top Group A.
Arsenal were reportedly showing an interest in him before the tournament started (Sky Italia, via Football Italia) but now it looks as if he could be on the move elsewhere.
Speaking on his show, Watts seemed to believe that Locatelli would be on his way to Juventus this summer after they also joined the race to try and sign him:
“From what I understand, he is most likely going to be a Juventus player next season. For those asking ‘are Arsenal going to sign him?’ I don’t think that is going to happen. It certainly appears, from what I’ve been told, from what they’re saying over in Italy, that he’s most likely going to be a Juventus player by the start of the coming season.”
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments about Manuel Locatelli…
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This signing was always going to be an uphill battle for Arsenal once Juventus decided they wanted to join them, especially when you consider Juventus are the biggest team in Italy and that he will have the chance to stay in his home country.
But this is just another player that Arsenal could have at least had a better chance of signing if they could offer Champions League football and had the power to push Juventus aside financially in terms of a transfer fee and wages.
If Arsenal are to avoid going backwards as a club, this summer really needs to be the last one that they find themselves in this position, or this cycle of missing out on players could end up being a continuous one.
In other news: ‘Top of my priority list’ – Charles Watts begs Arsenal to secure big in-house agreement