Reports in Italy claim that FA Cup winners, Arsenal FC have made an offer between £10-12 million Juventus and Italy u21 centre-back Daniele Rugani.
Rugani has just finished a breakthrough season in the Italian top flight with newly promoted side Empoli, also being called up to the Italian senior side by Antonio Conte for a European qualifier against Croatia and a friendly against Gianni De Biasi's Albania back in November.
Prior to this season, Rugani was half-owned by Juventus and Empoli but in February, the 'Old Lady' bought out the "remaining half of Daniele Rugani's registration rights" for a "fee of €3.5 million to be paid over the next four seasons" to Empoli and signed him to a contract that runs till the 30th June of 2019.
Rugani however remained on loan with the Tuscan club until the end of the season and was a main reason why Empoli finished in a respectable 15th position with 42 points. His three goals made him Empoli's 6th highest goal scorer in Serie A, but more impressively, Rugani was part of a unit that kept 10 clean sheets.
Arsenal have three recognised centre backs in their first team squad; German Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny and January acquisition Gabriel.
However, Calum Chambers has played in the heart of defence earlier in the season as a result of injuries to others but the general consensus is he looks more at ease at centre back than at right back, where his lack of pace has been exposed by Jefferson Montero and Eden Hazard this season.
Monreal and Debuchy have also filled in at centre back for Arsenal during the campaign but Arsene Wenger will surely prefer the security of having another centre back ready to play in his natural position.
At only 20 years of age, Rugani has plenty of time to learn the game and work on hiding some of the deficiencies in his game but he is already good at playing with the ball at his feet, is strong in the air and reads the game well.
Touted to be the successor of Giorgio Chiellini both at club level and for the Azzurri, a fee of the reported £10-12 million that Arsenal have offered may prove to be a shrewd investment for the future.
