Arsenal pushing for unlikely Manuel Locatelli transfer

If at first you don’t succeed, you should probably give up. The pursuit of Manuel Locatelli has been heading in that direction for a while now and Arsenal may be better off moving onto the other baskets they’ve, hopefully, placed a few eggs in.

Who partners Thomas Partey is the important question that has so far coughed up a multitude of answers. The Ghanaian’s profile can cater to a variety of midfielders which opens up numerous doors for Mikel Arteta to explore.

Kalvin Phillips’ energy could work; Yves Bissouma‘s destroyer-like nature could work; Manuel Locatelli’s exceptional distribution and technical versatility could work; Renato Sanches‘ ball-carrying ability creative instincts could also work.

Locatelli is the man of the moment, however, and reports of Arsenal’s interest continues to escalate to the point where an offer, as per some sources such as Fabrizio Romano, has been lodged. Elsewhere those claims have been played down but equally the Gunners do no help to their situation by exposing their position.

Arsenal pushing for unlikely Manuel Locatelli transfer this summer window as Thomas Partey’s midfield partner – but player wants Juventus move

There is one glaring problem, though. It isn’t the €40m asking price and nor is it a break down in communications with Sassuolo. Locatelli doesn’t want to come to Arsenal. It’s pretty straightforward.

Juventus are pushing hard to sign the Italian and despite their financial issues meaning their structuring of the deal is yet to satisfy the Sassuolo, the overwhelming expectancy is that they’ll get the deal done. Locatelli has made up his mind and as with so many Italian footballers, the Premier League is not an enticing option.

The Serie A side’s CEO, Giovanni Carnevali has, however, extended that talks are advanced with a foreign club (highly likely the usual tactics to get Juve to speed up) and while not specified it’s Arsenal who are leading the charge. A meeting is scheduled with I Bianconeri in the coming days.

As Romano said on sportskeeda, Sassuolo are opening up to the idea of a player being included in the deal for Locatelli and a two-year loan with obligation to buy is Juventus’ preferred method of payment.

That doesn’t suit Sassuolo at all but if the midfielder has his heart set on Turin then the clubs will find a way. It also means Arsenal need to turn the page and move on. There are plenty of exciting options across Europe who would love to don the red and white.

That they’re pushing for this deal is nonetheless exciting. It’s a true sign of intent to improve upon Granit Xhaka.

If they are to somehow pull this off then it will require Juventus withdrawing from the move, which at this stage looks highly unlikely. Never say never, of course, and the deal was always going to be a tough one to pull off, but it’s perhaps time to look elsewhere.