VITO MANNONE

Goalkeeper Vito Mannone continued his development in the Football League last season with a second loan spell at Championship side Hull City.

Having enjoyed a successful period with the Tigers in the 2010/11 campaign, Vito returned to the KC Stadium in January 2012 and played a prominent role thereafter. The Italian kept nine clean sheets in 11 league matches until March, playing 23 times as the Yorkshire club finished narrowly outside the play-offs.

Prior to that, Vito had spent the first half of the season at Arsenal although first-team opportunities were limited behind Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski.

But after injury to the latter at Olympiacos in the Champions League, the young goalkeeper stepped in to make his solitary appearance of the campaign for Arsène Wenger’s side.

Vito joined Arsenal from Atalanta in 2005 and it was not long before he enjoyed his first taste of action in the Championship with Barnsley in the 2006/07 season.

The following season he became a regular around the first team and, learning from Manuel Almunia and Fabianski, made his debut against Stoke City in May 2009.

But it was the 2009/10 campaign where Vito really impressed, most notably with an outstanding display at Fulham which saw the Italian’s stock rise rapidly. He lost his place when Almunia recovered from injury but he emerged from that eight-game stint a more confident, commanding presence between the posts.