A club CEO has confirmed contact as Man United and Spurs line up moves to sign West Ham star Gianluca Scamacca’s best friend.
A string of reports in recent months have claimed West Ham and bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur are battling to sign Italy international midfielder Davide Frattesi in January.
The problem for West Ham and Spurs, though, was that Manchester United came into the picture and were recently tipped to succeed with a serious offer (teamTALK, MEN).
Gazzetta dello Sport claims Tottenham, Man United and the Hammers all want the 23-year-old Sassuolo man.
Man United boss Erik ten Hag is said to be a huge fan and wants to bring him to Old Trafford.
Both David Moyes and Antonio Conte are keen to bolster their respective central midfield ranks too.
There had been hopes that West Ham’s £35m summer signing Scamacca could help Moyes beat Tottenham and Man United to Frattesi as the pair are the very best of friends.
Not only are Scamacca and Frattesi best friends, they are Italy teammates and were playing for Sassuolo together before West Ham pounced to bring their striker to the London Stadium in the summer.
Now the Italian club’s CEO has confirmed contact as Man United and Spurs line up moves to sign West Ham star Gianluca Scamacca’s best friend.
Sassuolo director Giovanni Carnevali has revealed he has only received offers for Frattesi from the Premier League.
The midfielder has also been linked with Roma, where he played in the youth team with West Ham’s Scamacca.
But Carnevali has warned Jose Mourinho’s side that the Premier League clubs – reported as being West Ham, Tottenham, the Red Devils and Brighton – are the only ones to have registered their interest.
“It’s going to be a long month, we have some requests, but our desire is to keep the team competitive,” Carnevali said, as reported by La Gazetta dello Sport and Football Italia.
“We do not necessarily want to sell our players in the current (January) transfer window, but we’ll see which opportunities we’ll have.
“We also have some requests for other players, but we mostly focus on new signings.”
It is easy to see why Moyes, Conte and Ten Hag all want Frattesi.
He is an exceptional talent and is an orthodox central midfielder by trade. But he can also operate in the number 10 position.
Frattesi has scored eight goals in 51 Serie A matches, making his senior Azzurri debut in June 2022.
The midfielder, who has known West Ham striker Scamacca since they were just six years old and used to live with him, recently admitted he has really missed the 6ft 5in forward since he moved to London.
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