After spending last season on loan at Atletico Madrid, Lucas Torreira is set for another loan move with Serie A side Fiorentina keen on bringing him back to Italy. Torreira is reportedly not part of Mikel Arteta’s plans, and the midfielder is keen to remain in London and prove Arteta wrong.
After a difficult time trying to shift Torreira off their wage bill, Arsenal may have found success with the loan move thought to include a compulsory option to buy.
According to football.london, the midfielder spoke of his desire to fight for a spot in the Arsenal team. Arteta is, however, adamant about not wanting his services and has now frozen him out of the squad.
The player’s agent, Pablo Bentancur, talked about the Uruguayan’s desire to seek a challenge in a familiar environment. Torreira already has a history in the Serie A, having played for Sampdoria.
Torreira’s woes
Torreira completed a switch to Arsenal in 2018, costing the Gunners £26m at the time. The highlight of his time with the club was impressive displays against Tottenham and Liverpool, where he was named man-of-the-match on both occasions. Unai Emery’s departure threw spanners in the works for the 25-year-old midway into the 2019/20 season.
Torreira was loaned to Atletico Madrid last season as Arteta continually showed his reluctance to keep the player at the Emirates. A successful loan spell, where he made 26 appearances, did not translate to a permanent move as Atletico with the Spanish giants facing Covid-19 induced financial struggles.
Since returning to Arsenal, Torreira has been training individually and is about to complete the move to Fiorentina.
Tough times for Torreira and Arsenal
According to Torreira, his situation at Arsenal did a lot of damage, and he needed the help of a psychologist to get him back in line mentally. Torreira recently claimed that his lack of game time left mental scars on him.
Arsenal have had a torrid start to the new campaign losing their first two games without scoring any goal. The two successive defeats came at the hands of Brentford and London rivals, Chelsea.
An insipid performance against Chelsea has the team rooted in the bottom rungs of the table.
Against Chelsea, Arsenal were without a number of their key players. The likes of Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhães and Alexandre Lacazette all missed out due to injury. Ben White was also sidelined after testing positive to Covid-19.
Arsenal’s woes have not been to earn Torreira a look in at the Emirates, and his exit is imminent.
Lucas Torreira is still an unwanted entity at the Emirates despite Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny jetting off to Cameroon in January for the Africa Cup of Nations. Speaking of departures, another South American in Willian is also close to leaving the club.
By :
Steven D. Thompson
