Italian shot stopper Vito Mannone signed for Arsenal as a teenager. He joined the Gunners from Italian Serie A outfit Atalanta in 2005 and the goalkeeper spent one year in the youth team before he was given his professional debut at Barnsley while he was an Arsenal loanee.While he was with the North Londoners, Vito Mannone was sent on loan to Barnsleyas pointed out above and Hull City.

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In August 2006, Mannone signed for Barnsley on a three-month loan deal. The Italian was brought in to challenge Nick Colgan as the first choice goalkeeper. He made his debut for Barnsley in a League Cup clash with Blackpool. The game ended 2-2 and penalties were needed to separate the teams. Vito Mannone saved a penalty during the shootout to help his team into the next round.

Mannone later suffered a knee injury at Barnsley thereby cutting his loan spell at the club short. He returned to parent team Arsenal immediately after suffering the knee injury at the English Championship club.

The ex-Atalanta player became the deputy to Polish international shot stopper Lukasz Fabianski for the 2007/08 League Cup campaign. Vito Mannone was an unused substitute in each of the five games during the Gunners’ League Cup campaign that season before they were dumped out of the competition by North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the semi-final stage.

Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone was named in a Premier League squad for the first time in April 2008. He was on the bench while German Jens Lehmann was in goal for the entire duration of the league encounter with Reading. The Royals were beaten 2-0 by home team Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. He would go on to make 15 appearances for Arsenal in the Premier League during his time at the club.