West Ham United January target Davide Frattesi scouted by Manchester United
Davide Frattesi’s asking price is likely to have shot up a few million if West Ham follow through on a January approach, after Manchester United scouted him.
The Italian was on the Hammers’ list during the summer transfer window before they pursued other targets, but Tutto Mercato Web suggested on 25 September that they could be back in the mix in the winter.
They previously reported that new Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi is a big fan, but according to La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday (8 October) interest is hotting up from Old Trafford.
The Red Devils reportedly sent scouts to watch the midfielder in Sassuolo’s 5-0 win over Salernitana last Sunday (2 October)
He scored his third goal of the season in the next match, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Inter, where La Gazzetta suggested other English teams would be in attendance.
The Italian publication refers to him as the “ideal midfielder” and a “box to box player capable of doing both phases”, so it is perhaps no surprise that he is sought-after.
Despite the encouraging signs exhibited in midweek by Flynn Downes, who the Irons ultimately went for in the summer, the above description sounds exactly like the sort of player who is needed to partner Declan Rice with Tomas Soucek’s form up and down.
Considering the way the club have performed overall this campaign, the rumblings of an exit for the West Ham captain in the summer have started up again, so it may even be necessary to sign his replacement.
Frattesi, 23, may be in the sights of a number of Italian sides already, but the presence of a club from the Premier League’s big six will no doubt make eyes light up in the Sassuolo board room.
His asking price was apparently as high as €35million in the summer, so the Manchester interest will have likely pushed that up.
After the failure to recruit Amadou Onana the central midfield feels like the one area that the Irons are still light, so if they are serious about Frattesi they will have to make use of all the familiarity built up in signing another Sassuolo star, Gianluca Scamacca, to stay ahead of the crowd.