Premier League Southampton have joined Serie A giants Juventus, Napoli and AC Milan in the race to sign £9 million centre-back Federico Gatti from Frosinone, according to Alessio Porcu.
Interestingly, Gatti is not the first Serie B star on Southampton’s radar either.
The goals have dried up for Lucca since then, however, the Tower of Pisa failing to score in any of his last nine league games. A lack of consistency could come at the cost of a big-money January move.
The same cannot be said of the granite-carved Gatti, however.
Can Southampton beat Juventus and Milan to Federico Gatti?
23-year-old Gatti only joined Frosinone from third-tier outfit Pro Patria a few months ago.
It’s a testament to how impessive he has been, albeit against the Cittadellas, the Comos and the Pordenones of this world, that some of Italy’s biggest and best are queuing up to take a punt on Gatti now.
According to Alessio Porcu, Juventus, Napoli, Atalanta and AC Milan are interested. Frosinone want £9 million, a fee that would make Gatti far more ‘gettable’ than Milan’s number one centre-back target, Lille’s Sven Botman.
A move to Juventus, however, will see Gatti share a dressing room with his idol – none other than Giorgio Chiellini.
“Chiellini is the player that inspires me due to his mentality. He never gives up,” Gatti admits.
The report claims that Southampton – a club with a fine track record when it comes to signing up-and-coming talents – have joined the race.
The Saints have more spending power at their disposal these days, too. The £150 million takeover by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak saw to that.
“He is the strongest (in Serie B),” says Frosinone CEO Guido Angelozzi (TMW).
“He is Chiellini with (Leonardo) Bonucci’s feet. He also scores goals.
“For Gatti, we are open to talks because we are small and we need big clubs. There are teams that are following him. There will be a lot of talk about this guy.”
He wasn’t wrong.
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