Arsenal's hopes to sign Sassuolo and Italy star Manuel Locatelli have been tempered after the midfielder reportedly shut down the transfer rumours.
He hasn't completely disregarded a move away from the Italian club but has made it clear he doesn't want his next destination to be the Gunners, according to Football.London.
Arsenal were looking to reinforce their midfield after Matteo Guendouzi and Dani Ceballos both left the club.
Locatelli is now looking at a move to Juventus and Italian journalist Paolo Bargiggia claims the star had a one word answer to the prospect of an Arsenal transfer.
He told Sport Witness : "Juventus will take him for sure. The boy said no to Arsenal.
"The formula is complex: Juve are doing everything not to take him under the obligation of redemption, while Sassuolo push.
"There’s talk of a €40m operation. Eventually, it will do: one way or another.”
Despite reports suggesting Arsenal had not yet put a bid in for the 23-year-old, Sassuolo's chief executive Giovanni Carnevali claimed they had.
He told reporters: "Arsenal have made an official bid for Locatelli. They’re pushing hard to sign Manuel and it’s an important bid... we will see.
"Juventus also want Locatelli and we have a special relationship with them. A new meeting has been scheduled with Juve.
"We are trying to leave the lad calm, so I haven’t spoken to him or his agents yet.
"We can think about Locatelli’s future, but above all we care about his present and that means Italy doing well at the Euros."
Locatelli may be looking to move to Juventus but his focus will remain on Euro 2020 as his team defeated Spain in their semi-final on Tuesday on penalties.
The midfielder's attempt was saved by Spain's keeper Unai Simon but Italian keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma managed to do enough to see Italy through.
Roberto Mancini's side have ran an impressive campaign at the tournament so far and they will face either England or Denmark in the final as the two sides face each other in their semi on Wednesday.
The Three Lions may have the home advantage of playing at Wembley in front of 60,000 fans but Denmark are quietly confident.
The Danes' manager Kasper Hjulmand has insisted his team are not the underdogs in the match.
He said: “We are in a phase now with the national team that we are moving away from being the underdog all the time.
"We try to take the initiative regardless of who our opponents are. We try to be proactive and score goals. I don’t like the underdog mentality. Our mindset is not like an underdog. We are out to create chances and attack. We have the mentality that we can go out and beat whoever we are playing.
“There is a lot of pressure on the English team compared to us. We can and will use this opportunity with everything we have got. They will be helped by the fans but there is also enormous pressure on them because everyone expects them to beat us.”