Lucas Torreira says he can’t talk about the possibility of playing for another team right now as Arsenal need him to be focused. However, he again hinted that he’s open to a departure when the transfer window arrives, and suggested he has a dream of playing for Boca Juniors.
Speaking to a radio show called ‘Tiempo de Fútbol‘, he touched on his performances for the Uruguayan national side, and seemed to address the unrest that has been a feature of this international break.
After his agent made it clear he was unhappy with how he was being used by Unai Emery at Arsenal, the midfielder said, “Today Arsenal needs me to be focused. I can’t start talking about another team.
“I need to be focused and when the transfer period arrives we will see what will happens.
“I don’t know what will happen in the future. But I would like to be able to play for Boca.
“It’s a dream I have for what that institution represents.”
So, in this one international break the player and his agent have suggested he’d be happy to return to Italy, go to Spain, or even Argentina.
It does reflect well on how he’s feeling at Arsenal right now, that’s for sure, and with Granit Xhaka also heading towards the exit door after his recent bust-up, the Gunners could be facing something of a midfield crisis.
Whatever happens, it requires some strong leadership from those running the football side of the club, so let’s hope we get it.
Honestly though, I don’t think a player should talk like that. Its one thing coming from an agent, but this verges on “disrespectful”.
Agree. However, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes and players are human beings and this to me is fairly indicative of a player whose feedback has not been heard internally.. #EmeryOut
Has he been a very good player though? Come on, he wasn’t used as a goalkeeper by Emery.
Yes, let’s boo him. He shall make an excellent sacrifice for the AFTV Gods.
Is it disrespectful or is he just answering a question that he was asked…? As Arsenal fans we have seem this type of thing too often for me to take this with too much seriousness. I’m more concerned about him being used as a makeshift attacking midfielder when we have quite a few of those in the squad already. His situation sums Emery up, you have a square peg with a gaping square hole and you try and throw that square peg in a circle hole 50 feet away. Play the players where they play best and you might get… Read more »
Pocchettino in!
That bandwagon is going to start overflowing soon. I am well in to have my seat.
I`m all in for the Poch now. fuck Emery and his damn ebbinings
It is disrespectful from Arsenal to have a coach like Unai Emery. The guy is ruining Torreira’s life. He doesn’t want to play offensive midfielder and he wants out. Arsenal is a sinking ship and everyone wants to jump. Thanks to the board and our owner. Wait until the rest of the team want out too.
Ruining his life lol
He must really hate being here at arsenal.
I don’t think what he hates is being at Arsenal. It’s more how he’s being applied at Arsenal. It’s uncomfortable for him. Instead of earning reviews on what he does best, he gets rated and slated for poor performances stemming from being shoehorned into a position that isn’t his.
He only need think of Xhaka and realize what could easily be his fate. The fans are ruthless and will not care that the manager is giving him the wrong role.
Loved it in the first year though didnt he? Especially after his derby goal. Perhaps if we had a manager who played him in his preferred position, we would have the same happy player back.
I don’t think he’s ever settled. Much as I like him as a player, I guess sometimes these things happen. Just too drastic a change in culture/ language/ climate, whatever. There were rumours of his dissatisfaction before the end of last season if I remember correctly. Definitely during the summer, and there was a game at the beginning of this season where we scored a late winner and there was a shot of the whole bench celebrating.. Apart from him, who sat motionless and expressionless. Much as I think Emery is completely and utterly clueless, I’m not sure how much… Read more »
As much as it pains me to see, because I really like him alot, I can’t really say I blame him. Who in their right mind wouldn’t be thinking about making a few phone calls in his situation. I would in my job.
I think he hates being at Arsenal at the same time as Unai Emery, as do most of us.
Clearly his heart is not at Arsenal. Once upon a time, this attitude would have been flabbergasting We need him to do a job for for now, but a replacement should be lined up… along with the other half a dozen replacements needed (including Emery). Ugh, what a mess.
Wenger would have done wonders with a player of this quality. Remember the stretch we had with Cazorla playing deep to get the ball early and Coquelin playing defensive midfielder ? We were so good…
I think Torreira could have the Cazorla role. Less technical but with a more tenacity in the defensive side…
Torreira is much closer to Coquelin than Cazorla in profile!
Ceballos should be the Cazorla here. I would like to see Emery try it.
Torriera-Ceballos with Guendouzi further up.
I’d like to see Emery try a lot of things.
Resignation for one.
The only one I want him to try, honestly!
Bungee Jumping
I’d like to see Emery stop trying a lot of things!
Sure, nobody is close to Cazorla in profile. He’s a wizard. But Torreira is way more skilled than Coquelin with the ball in his feet.
The only similarity between Torreira and Cazorla is that had they been born a hundred years ago they would both have found gainful employment being fired out of a cannon.
Torreira is the archetypal defensive cover midfielder. Cazorla is a football wizard. Both have their places and I would kill to seem playing together in their proper positions.
We genuinely miss Coquelin.
Wenger more or less did the same thing to him as Emery is doing to Torreira, pushing him higher up the pitch and trying to turn him into more of a creator. He was doing brilliantly before that
Had all the makings of a future captain until he got Emery’d this season and now he wants to leave so bad he’s all but said it.
Torreira? Captain? Never saw it personally.
However much the club may send out players to say how happy they are or how confident they are of improving it’s clear Emery has lost the dressing room. Players have liked posts of his sacking whilst I read others are refusing to sign contracts.
I know some of it may be the media smelling blood and are now circling but it’s sad to see how far we as a club have fallen, a couple of years ago I used to read about players dreaming of joining arsenal now this.
Players used to dream to come here to work with Arsene Wenger. He had a track record of master strokes with players, unlocking their skill or providing them with the insight and comfort to be themselves and become great.
Who would strive to work with Emery? He doesn’t improve players explicitly. Players may improve whilst being coached by him, but not because of him especially, not more than they would under any other average coach.
He was making noises in the summer before the change in position as well, I don’t think he’s ever truly settled here at all and I’m not sure that would change under another manager. I think the best case scenario is we let him and Xhaka go, either in Jan or the summer, and we find a top class DM that actually wants to be here.
Torreira is a top class DM.
An absolute beast of a DM.partey or Ndidi
good luck with that…
Not a big problem with the right manager.
Other top clubs seem to manage tbf, and we ought to have money to spare after selling these two.
That’s definitely not good…
We are in a midfield crisis for some years.
Will be very sad if torreira leaves. Been waiting since coq left for a good DM. Well, looks like we’ll need edu in midfield at the rate we’re going. With xhaka also leaving we miggt need to appoint patrick as player-manager and field them both in CM.
If only our so called “fans” could understand that boo-ing your own player affects the whole team, and not only the player. The players want a positive atmosphere, specially in home games. When we are booing our own players, everyone on the team will start to raise an eyebrow.
We need a good winning streak, and we need to back our players. Starting on saturday!
We need to do what we can to keep torreira, auba, and the others at the club. Not draw them away.
I am quite sure that nobody will boo the players when they run out of the tunnel on Saturday. And if they actually start the winning streak, I am very sure that nobody will boo them after the final whistle as well.
Even Ronaldo got booed by Madrid fans. Some players use it as fuel to perform better. Others implode.
This is so true. The captain, a well respected and popular figure in the dressing room, gets booed, tarred, feathered and hounded out of the club. And that’s started well before he told anyone to fuck off. We then expect his teammates to just shrug and get on with it. Sorry, but Emery is not the only one who needs to up his game.
Emery looks like he’s trying to cement Arsenal as a midtable team aspiring to the top 4 with his style of play. Yes he’s had only a full season so far, but the way we are playing has been terrible to watch.
Very open to an upgrade on Lightweight Lucas. For a supposed DM we’ve conceded a worrying amount of goals with him in the side.
I wish he was a foot taller
I wish he was a baller
At least he is a baller…
(hoping someone catches the obscure reference to that hip hop song from way back…)
oh yeah! skee lo, that was :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDOy3AosBw
Brilliant 🙂
Pretty sure he has a girl who looks good, and calls her.
Yes, but only because of what he lacks in the technical & creative department. Which of course is why he should be played furter back. On the other hand trying to become a DM at top level with only 130 lbs is a bit of a challenge.
Makalele was hardly a giant, he didn’t do too badly at DM.
Consistently picking a slow, temperamentally suspect, positionally indisciplined passer at the base of our midfield over a naturally defensive terrier-like ball winner like Torreira in the Premier League should be a sackable offence. No wonder Torreira is so disillusioned.
“Consistently picking a slow, temperamentally suspect, positionally indisciplined passer…..” who frequently loses the ball in poor positions and is unable to stop himself from making reckless, thoughtless and downright stupid foul challenges……..
Other than that the sentiment is perfect.
Emery out.
Torreira in.
You come to a company, your speciality is marketing. You’ve got a contract to work in the maeketing departement. Suddenly your boss says “Oh, mate, finally, i think that you’d be a goat at human ressources!! You change!”. What do you do? Wasting your professional life (that is short for a football player) in a field you don’t understand and you’re not made for or you search for another company?
For $150K a week he should play in goal if he’s told.
Bit suspect on crosses tho …
Maureen madness …. Sp*ds will be hated by everyone … comedy gold. Brst result of the interlull.
I’m sure he would turn out in goal if asked.
But then don’t be surprised when he answers ‘anywhere but here’ when asked about his future plans.
I wonder if it’s just Torreira not liking Arsenal/London/the Prem or whether it’s just down to him not being used to his fullest and he feels like he’s wasting his career here.
Hopefully our football higher ups put their foot down and sort this out. Either get him playing to his fullest or sell.
Sigh.
If we don’t replace Emery ASAP, we’ll lose all of our best players.
Agree. This is getting dangerous.
Whilst it is easy to blame everything on Emery, I don’t think this is his fault.
There was plenty of noises coming from the Torriera camp pre-season about him not settling in England, his girlfriend not liking the weather etc…
He just doesn’t fit and we should cash in while we can and spend the money on a defender in Jan.
I will be honest and say he hasn’t really thrilled me much since he arrived, even in his favoured position I don’t think he has really been that spectacular. I wouldn’t miss him.
Not entirely but we can definitely say that Unai can show better man management here.
I have this player who’s not fitting in with the team. Hmmm maybe i’ll change up his role to something he isn’t familiar with. I bet that would solve it.
We’ve been wanting a defender for what.. 5 years or more. We still do. I’m worried someone made a strange bet. “Let’s see how long we can go without addressing this obvious issue…”
I’m not clear how selling a midfielder, with the likely event of another midfielder also going out in loan and replacing with another defender when we already have a full complement solves anything.
It’s the coaching, not the players…
Diminutive, short, tiny, minuscule, infinitesimal.
and all the other synonyms for short
a holding midfielder who is 5’5?! It’s never going to work
Show me one comparison outside of the blue one
Kante, Makalele. On the other hand there are examples of tall defensive midfielders being crap Dier, Nzonzi.
I just don’t understand what this British obsession with how tall yo7 are has to with anything. Can we please move in from the 1950s.
have a look at the competition. How many dwarfs are in the holding midfield position?
Certain truths are timeless. You don’t need to be unai emery to know that stature is important for a dm.
Lucas is too short to compete in the premier league as a dm.
so kante is your only comparison?
What has height got to do with performance. I guess Messi is 6ft 5in right
That comparison doesn’t work. an attacker doesnt need weight and height to impose himself on defenders. They need speed and finesse primarily
The same cannot be said for tough tackling central midfielders. You need size and strength.
come on mate think it through
Or just to be able to read the game well…
I would think they need more of a footballing brain, positional awareness /discipline, ability to win tackles and many other attributes more than brute force or brainless brawn. Not saying a good physique is to be sniffed at, but it takes well more than that to be a good central midfielder or any type of footballer for that matter.
To be honest, i think he is a good player but not ‘the player’ we need in the position. The premiership does not suit every player and i don’t really think it suits him.
I don’t think he is a top class holding MF and he certainly is not a creative MF able to supply those killer passes that open up a defence, so I’m not absolutely sure, what exactly he is and where best to play him…
At least his play-acting will suit any of those leagues better.
He may not be perfect but definitely an upgrade to the squad and was someone who kept Ronaldo quiet.
Answer one question, did he ever come across as a big time charlie? With all due respect, all South American players know they have to adapt in Europe regardless of country. So he is for sure prepared for the change.
So the question is, what drives a player like him to say such things.
The board need to remove the manager ASAP. It seems quite clear both on and now off the pitch that too many players are not getting along with him.
The only logical reason I can see for Emery still being in a job right now are as follows:
1) Raúl doesn’t want to admit the mistake we made hiring him, but honestly I can’t see him being that stupid and unaware.
2) The management are all in on holiday and can’t be bothered to deal with the shitshow we have become.
3) The board are all spurs fans and are trolling the fans hard…like real hard….
4) He has photographs from the Arsenal office party
Haha yeh forgot this.
5. Top-four is already gone and a new manager won’t make any difference. Better to hope that Emery wins the EU but if he doesn’t then he can be got rid of for nothing at the end of the season. Then a new boss can be appointed.
Yeah, I know it’s stupid, but we have a useless board.
Still an open question as to who do we get in that (a) fits our philosophy/budget (b) is available or willing to make themselves available (c) has a good enough track record of success/attacking football and (d) actually for sure wants to come here now. If Jurgen Klopp was available, I don’t think the board would hesitate!
Another player who started really well for us and has now slipped into mediocrity making strong hints at leaving. He’s not the first.
Why? What is going on? How long are we going to continue like this?
Thank you Emery. #Emeryout
Not directly on topic, but I swear after the LTR that was us and Wenger, Emery feels like the rebound fling that is lasting waaaay too long.
We’ll see? What I see is another whining millionaire. I’m sorry but these guys who are probably amongst the most privileged workforces on the planet should learn some humility. They can “work” for 10 years and be set for life. They receive the best health/fitness care available 24/7, travel the world for free and even if they do not get on the bench, they still receive a weekly paycheck double that of most fans yearly wage. The audacity to cry about being played in a premier league starting 11 regardless of position astounds me, it really does. When you look… Read more »
Emery is just forcing out the players until he has a team made up of his own chosen ones. Like Denis Suarez for instance.
poor guy! I say it again, the main issue, in our midfield, is Guendozi. Tactically he is all over the place and he runs lot, and that is what Emery likes (and that is why he does not like Ozil) but it makes a mess of the midfield, no order. I remember, at the beginning of last season, how a midfield base of Torreira and Xhaca was more disciplined and effective. And then use the spirit and dynamism of Guendozi as a sub when needed
I am not sure Torriera is been disrespectful.
I would imagine if any of us were playing for Emery and asked the same question we would all be looking to leave the next window
Well, if being played out of position is the reason for seeking employment elsewhere, then I think we need to brace for a mass exodus of the first team.