Federico Macheda may have some explaining to do on his return to Old Trafford from Italy Under-21 duty after describing his Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney as a "chav".

"Rooney is a really great person, he always gives me advice, but he's a bit of a coatto," Macheda told the Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport. Coatto is a Roman slang term that is translated by online dictionary wordreference.com as "young urban working class person with vulgar and sometimes violent behaviour", but is understood in the same way a "chav" would be in English.

It seems likely that Macheda meant the term affectionately, however, and certainly not as the insult it might seem when taken out of context. Some reports of the same interview suggest he actually finished the sentence "a coatto like me".

Macheda also played down reports that he is considering a move to Lazio, saying he was keen to succeed with United. "I want to grow at Manchester, when I am older I can make decisions about what to do next," he said. "I am told that Ferguson has called me 'unsellable'. That is a very satisfying thing to hear.

"I feel more of an English footballer now, and now I speak the language with an accent that is more English than Roman. The rumours about Lazio please me, but I don't believe I'll go."

His Italy Under-21 team-mate, Vito Mannone, however, suggested that he might look to leave Arsenal if he wasn't given more first-team opportunities in the near future.

"Last year I played nine matches and Arsenal never lost with me in the team," he told Gazzetta. "They tried again with Almunia, then against Chelsea it was [Lukasz] Fabianski. It hurts not to be playing, especially when the other two aren't doing brilliantly."