Arsenal had an offer for AC Milan’s 18-year-old midfielder, Manuel Locatelli, during the summer according to an exclusive on Calciomercato.com.

From the report about Arsenal’s attempts to sign Manuel Locatelli:

Our transfer pundit Fabrizio Romano has exclusively learned that Arsenal made an attempt to sign Locatelli last summer. Arsenal chief scout Neil Banfield had scouted the youngster several times last season and made an offer that AC Milan rejected without thinking twice.

Unlikely Donnarumma, Locatelli has already signed his first professional contract with the Serie A side, but he could be offered a new deal if he carry on delivering world-class performances.

AC Milan are so convinced by Locatelli that they could decide to drop Milan Badelj in the January window. Fiorentina are still demanding € 15 million for the Croatian midfielder, but Milan want to spend half than that.

I’m not overly sure how important this EXCLUSIVE is given that we carried a report at the start of the month covering Arsenal trying to sign Locatelli.

Anyway…

So who is he?

Locatelli is an 18-year-old central midfielder who is mainly being deployed as a defensive midfielder this season.

A tall player standing at 6’1”, he has already been earmarked as a future captain of the Azzuri.

With just the two games in Serie A last season, he’s already doubled that this as Milan try to show him that he has a future with them. Two goals in 369 minutes of action is a decent return as well, starting the last three games in Serie A.

An international at u19 level for Italy, he has 17 caps for them at that level (and one goal) after working his way up through the international youth ranks, playing at u15, 16 and 17 level.

He’s been with AC Milan since he was 12, moving there from Atalanta in 2010.

He signed a new deal until 2020 but a new one is being talked about with a significant salary increase.

He currently earns €300k per year (approx. £5k per week).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9rQjsG8c_g