Lucas Torreira says a surprise phone call from Unai Emery on the eve of the World Cup helped him to focus on his duties with Uruguay safe in the knowledge his move from Sampdoria to Arsenal would go ahead.
Despite strong speculation linking him with a move to the Emirates, the midfielder embarked on his country’s pre-tournament training camp with negotiations over his future ongoing.
He admits that interest from the Gunners came as something of a surprise because he’d initially been expecting to make a move to another club in Italy.
“At the end of my last season at Sampdoria there were lots of teams being talked about,’ the 22-year-old told Arsenal Media.
“I never imagined coming here to England because it was mainly Italian clubs being mentioned.
“Before I left for the World Cup I got a call from the coach which was a massive surprise for me.
“I knew that I had earned it because of all my hard work and everything that I had done. That phone call made me a happy man.
“It allowed me to relax too because it allowed me to focus all my attention on the national team and the World Cup.
“I’m so proud to be part of such an important team and it gives me a lot of motivation to keep improving, to keep developing and to give everything I have for the team.”
Torreira says he’s also thankful for the fact he’s able to communicate in his native tongue with both Emery and the other Spanish speaking coaches. While the midfielder is trying to learn English, something that his boss praised recently, it still helps that instructions and conversations can be relayed clearly.
That said, it’s not just the language that he’s adapting to. There’s also a heavy fixture schedule that includes domestic, European and international games.
“It hasn’t been easy though: there’s the language and the issue of communicating,” he went on.
“I’m lucky because the coach is Spanish and the coaching staff are too, so that makes things easier for me because they can explain things in Spanish to me.
“It’s also not been easy to adapt to the football here: the intensity, the tempo and quality of games
“At Sampdoria I had been used to playing in Serie A and Coppa Italia, whereas now I’m involved in four competitions here as well as the national team.
“It’s very demanding but I try to prepare myself the best I can to ensure that I’m up to the challenge.”
It’s fair to say he’s been doing a very good job at that so far.
Not going to lie, my biggest fear with him is that we’ll lose him to Barcelona, who’ll be looking for successors to Busquets. He’s just visibly world class.
Completely agree. Looking at his performances this season, I’m amazed there wasn’t more competition (publicly at least) when we went after him
Didn’t the coach or the owner of Sampdoria say something like ‘if he was 6ft he would be worth 100m by now?”
As they say, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. And wow, can this boy fight!
The important thing is that if we do lose him it costs those fuckers 100m.
Sign him up for 6 years now.
And Guendouzi.
Or invest in the team and get 4 more world class players and make London colney a galactico destination.
It’s ok if we follow the Liverpool model of bringing in future superstars and selling them for massive money. As long as we don’t go the Monaco route of selling ALL of them!
???
The only top player in his prime who left us to join Barcelona was Fabregas. If we can strengthen the team and win trophies I cannot see why he would not stay
Henry wasn’t necessarily being put out to pasture when he left for Barça.
Well, until we’re consistently back in the CL, we have to accept that as a possibility. Sign him up for 10 years with a 1 trillion buyout clause 🙂
Whenever I watch Barca, I hope they have a great, young, right fullback playing. Now, you’ve got me worried about a successor to Busquets (who really shows no sign of slowing yet).
Amazed how quickly he has settled and become a big player for us. He’s done great, even scoring goals which I didn’t expect. Hope he keeps coping with the physicality and keeps going at the same level.
It’s the other way round. Hope the league can cope with Torreira’s physicality.
I hope the league can’t cope. I want Torreira to dominate every opponent! He is quality and I’m loving the positivity around our club now. It’s good to see.
And he’s only 22. To put that into perspective, Iwobi is of the same age, and Maitland-Niles for example is just a year and a half younger.
Honestly could read articles about him 24/7.
Not to gloss over his importance and achievements but because he IS so important, I hope that Emery has a plan in place for someone to step in for him every now and then. New country, new league, an additional two competitions, no Xmas break… at this rate, he’ll start to tire which wouldn’t be good for club or player.
Shades of Wilshere in his importance, and the risk of overplaying him.
The latter was much younger yes, but the caveat stands all the same.
He’s one booking away from a rest so expect that before Liverpool match. He is different class though…
You’re so right. That can not be over emphasized.
In addition, because of the travel, the international breaks are much more difficult for him than for a European player.
Yeah, so far he seems to be a player that coaches look at and say, this guy is playing 180 min every week no problem. And while that may be true, it is a risk for ANY player, even players who seem to have batteries in their in their brain.
I’m sure Emery will give him rest here and there. Tonight is perfect opportunity to let him watch the youngsters have fun from the bench, come back ready to kick Southampton up the asshole
Hi everyone, what is the correct chant for Torreira? I think it ends “he’s only 5 foot high” but a friend thinks it’s “he’s only 5 foot 5”. I only get to go to the odd match and haven’t been this season yet, and on TV it’s never clear. Internet gives both possibilities!
If you can forgive my lack of surety and not just thumb me down for not knowing(!), can I ask for thumbs up for 5 foot high and thumbs down for 5 foot 5?
What a fantastic young player. I really hope he goes on to become a top world class player with us.
Too many fans are all too ready to jump on certain players backs conveniently ignoring the good parts to their game. Case in point recently iwobi. Sure he had a couple of poor touches but Torreira also puts one or two poor passes here and there. All players will at some point. Against Huddersfield, Iwobi stretched the game for us out wide and set off Kolasinac with a superb lay off. Also he drove forward with good strength holding the ball for us which is something we need plus at the end of the match he held the ball in… Read more »
Torreira has improved our midfield but this is NOT in isolation.
He has also had an impact on Granit but independently, Xhaka has also improved under Emery and this has improved us in the middle.
This goes for the addition of Guendouzi too who has greatly helped to revamp the once neglected engine room of the team.
We need probably one more quality player in this area but I suspect we won’t add till the summer. Meanwhile hopefuls like Willock and maybe AMN will get a chance here and there to shine.
I’m not actually sure about Granit improving independently of Torreira. Perhaps he has a little bit, love that he’s taking responsibility for set pieces for example, but at the same time his performances when partnered with Torreira vs Guendouzi (or anyone else) are night and day. Maybe that’s unfair considering that when he was partnered with Guendouzi he would have still been getting used to Emery’s methods, and we did have to play City and Chelsea. And not surprising that he’d massively improve when next to a proper DM, let alone one as good as Torreira has been so far.… Read more »
Torreira an impressive player
Easily signing of the season; cheaper than Kante and somehow less than half the cost of Fred! Mental.