Fiorentina boss Vincenzo Italiano says Dusan Vlahovic is “motivated” and “relaxed” amid transfer interest from Arsenal.
The Gunners are tracking the striker, who took his tally of Serie A goals for the season to 17 on Monday night by scoring against Genoa.
Fiorentina ran out 6-0 winners and could have triumphed by more, but Vlahovic missed a penalty during the first half.
Arsenal are big fans of the 21-year-old, who is valued at around £60million, but Italiano insists his star player won’t get distracted by the transfer talk.
“At the moment we enjoy Dusan here at Fiorentina, he’s with us - I don’t know about the future,” he said. “He scored a great goal today. I see him very motivated, he’s relaxed.”
Vlahovic missed his penalty by attempting a ‘Panenka’ and afterwards he apologised to fans and his team-mates.
“He felt like taking the penalty,” Italiano added. “He is a sensitive guy, he apologised to the fans and then came to talk to me.
“He will understand that certain things are best avoided. But he will recover soon, he is someone who always gives his soul and there is a mistake every now and then.”
Lucas Torreira, who is currently on loan at Fiorentina from Arsenal, also scored on Monday night and has been linked as a potential makeweight in a deal for Vlahovic.
“When he arrived [in the summer], he was short on fitness,” said Italiano. “He is doing everything right. Now he begins to read the scoring situations as well.”
