Arsenal suffer Manuel Locatelli transfer blow

This is a story that will not die down. It won’t until Manuel Locatelli is holding aloft either an Arsenal or Juventus shirt and as it stands he’s yet to do either. A transfer that appears to be leaning one way may yet have a twist. Or not.

Preparing to jet off to the USA on Wednesday for the Florida Cup, signings and sales are yet to be concluded in the volume hoped for and there are some understandably worried faces. There is, however, over half of the window left to play out and patience, as they say, is a virtue.

And it’s the patient game that Arsenal are playing with Manuel Locatelli.

From hereon in there is nothing more that the club can do. They have given the green light to Sassuolo to hand over their star man for a cool £34.3m, reports circulating around Italy but since picked in The Guardian and elsewhere in England.

Arsenal suffer fatal Manuel Locatelli transfer blow with midfielder preferring to stay at Sassuolo if Juventus move doesn’t happen this summer window

They’ve assured the Serie A side that they will pay what is demanded, and having shown their willingness they’ve done all the can to reassure Locatelli that he’s top of their wishlist.

Juventus have offered €30m as a season-long loan deal for the 2021/22 campaign with an obligation to buy next summer, which has been refused. Everything they’ve thrown at Sassuolo had has a similar response: installments, players in swap deals and two-year loans, the lot.

However it is no secret that Locatelli’s preference is to join Juventus. They’re his boyhood club, one of the most prestigious sides in Italy and one of the biggest clubs in world football. The allure is strong. The Champions League football exists.

There is talk of the 23-year-old ‘ignoring’ Arsenal’s calls and ‘refusing’ to speak to them, but it all may count for little with Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio reporting (via football.london) that if a move to Juventus does not materialise for Locatelli then he’ll be going nowhere.

Even with Arsenal’s persistence, the midfielder would rather stay with Sassuolo than move to the Premier League, which can put a firm final nail in this coffin.

As Fabrizio Romano noted (he isn’t as sure of Locatelli staying) Arsenal only want to sign players who are fully committed to joining the club – hardly much of a surprise – and if Locatelli has Turin-facing tunnel vision then it’s absolute confirmation of it being time to move on.

A pursuit in which Arsenal were always second best, if it had got to the point where they were essentially forcing the Euro 2020 winner to join it does nothing for the squad or Mikel Arteta. It’s vital that whoever is brought in to partner Thomas Partey must hit the ground running and adding in unhappiness to the inevitable stylistic readjustment would only hinder the team.

Boasting outstanding qualities and potential, a fully content and integrated Locatelli would be a magnificent signing for the Gunners. He would complement Partey superbly.

If he doesn’t want that then neither should Arsenal.