Apart from winning the EURO 2020, Italian national team players won the respect of the general football public. Among those players is Sassuolo midfielder Manuel Locatelli who is on the radar of many big European clubs.Juventus and Arsenal have been showing most interest but in this race it looks like the Old Lady of Turin have the pole-position.Arsenal after PSG’s defender; See-saw with Brighton’s Ben White shifts focus to German Thilo KehrerIn his five games at the continental tournament, Locatelli scored two goals but he did experience a low moment when he missed his penalty in the shootout victory against Spain in the semi-finals.Arsenal showed open interest in the Sassuolo player but it looks like they will lose the battle – even though Juventus had their first 34.5 million USD bid rejected by the midfielder, Locatelli and Juventus both seem optimistic and confident they will reach an agreement. Juventus reportedly offered Sassuolo an initial loan deal, with an obligation to buy the 23-year-old, but such a proposal was not accepted. Regardless, Sassuolo are however continuing talks with Juve as they are believed to be the player’s preferred choice.Covid19 crawls into Manchester City headquartersArsenal have allegedly tabled their own bid worth 53 million USD, but it is most probably all in vain as Locatelli has already hinted his first choice would be to join the Turin giants.’Up until now, I haven’t really thought about it, I couldn’t.’ Locatelli said while speaking to Sky Sport Italia about his future following Euro 2020. ‘The interest of Juventus is pleasing, they are a great team and I have said it several times.’From what has been presented so far, Sassuolo are waiting for Juventus to offer the amount Arsenal were ready to pay – therefore, negotiations remain ongoing between Bianconeri and Neroverdi.Since the attempts to bring Locatelli are showing less and less promising, Arsenal will shift their focus to other midfielders on their wish list – such as Brighton and Mali Yves Bissouma and Lyon’s Houssem Aouar.
