Lucas Torreira appears to be edging closer to a move to Atletico Madrid with news surfacing this afternoon that his representative, Pablo Bentancur, is in the Spanish capital to talk contract terms.
Torreira has been heavily linked with Italian sides Torino and Fiorentina in recent weeks but it’s easy to understand why a club of Atleticos’ prestige would be preferable.
The agent of Lucas Torreira is now in Madrid to meet with Atlético. Negotiations on between Atléti and Arsenal to complete the agreement. #AFC are still asking for a permanent deal – Atléti are gonna make a new bid. Talks on. ⚪️? #Arsenal #Atleti @MatteMoretto
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 29, 2020
Whether Arsenal are capable of persuading the Spanish side to part ways with Thomas Partey as part of the deal remains to be seen.
The Ghana international, a long-standing target for Mikel Arteta, has a €50 million price tag on his head that Los Colchoneros are stubbornly refusing to lower.
To be honest, we’re not even sure if Torreira will leave on a permanent deal or if we’re happy with a loan arrangement for the time being.
With a week of the transfer window left to run, there’s still room for more twists and turns. Expect this and a few other deals to go to the wire.
Imagine if the money received for his permanent transfer were used to activate the Thomas release clause.
You don’t want to pay the release clause as 100 percent of the money due immediately not to mention the taxes on top of it.
Atleti has made it clear that they will only allow the player to leave of the RC is paid. If Arsenal wants him, they have to pay the RC.
The only way this works is Paying the Partey RC and agreeing favorable payment terms for Aouar
That’s not happening and everyone knows it. Atletico can only spend a fraction of the money they receive for transfers due to restrictions from la Liga and government help potentially needing to be repaid. Atletico are just playing hardball either bc they genuinely don’t want him to leave or they mistakenly think they’re still dealing with Raul.
I guess we will find out how this unfolds in less than a week from today
Yep – but you can pretty much guarantee it doesn’t end in us depositing 50m euros with la liga. If they’re genuinely sticking to this idea that we have to buyout Partey’s contract then we should be equally ruthless in terms of Torreira with them – 25m obligation to buy plus loan fee or he goes somewhere else or stays with us this year.
Partey was on the bench in their last game – in that case they’d probably have too many dm’s
That can only mean he has signed for Arsenal. I even heard there is a direct flight on a private jet that left Madrid and is about to land in Luton in 18 mins and 35 seconds. Partey on Wayne!
I saw something on Twitter from a guy who was sat next to Partey at the Barbers and whilst eavesdropping heard him talking about how he’s had a mild case of hemoriods recently, however towards the end of the conversation he was overheard saying “i’ve got a real itch for Arsenal”
He’s definitely on his way!
Disgusting, but still funny.
Yes, but it could be a number of other things. Obviously, he’s a player we want but whether he played recently or not for AM doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on his way out. All will become clear by 6 October.
He came on midway in the second half and his first contribution was to foul a Granada player close to the 18 yard box!
Not surprised to read that, it’s the Atletico way of football.
Luiz would totally love him if that’s the case.
Good news for all
Really? He’s the best CM at Arsenal, except for the one we have on.loan. Athletico wouldn’t take Xhaka or Elneny for free even if we offered to pay their wages
After yesterday’s disasterclass in the midfield, we absolutely have to go and get this guy!
It wasn’t a disasterclass, it was just meh. We have become so boring in recent years, Wenger may have had flaws, but he would never have allowed a midfield two to complete less than 20 combined forward passes in a game. No matter the opposition, it’s an absolute embarrassment for a club of our history and resources.
I prefer this “embarrassment” to being whipped 2 – 8, 0 – 6, 1 – 5, 2 – 10 (over 2 legs), 0 – 4 by almighty Southampton! and the like.
For the first time in many years, I don’t have the fear of a bad scoreline no matter who we play.
Like Arteta rightly said yesterday, Liverpool was not playing like this four years ago.
Arsenal under Arteta are firmly on the right track; I suspect the manager is just shielding the team from a demoralising defeat like the scores above.
No we had the players to at least get a draw yesterday. I firmly believe that. Three of our best, inform squad started on the bench. I don’t get it. I waited all week for that shower of shite last night. Total let down.
You see what he’s done? He’s got my hopes up.. The only justification was it was a message to the board.
I agree that the team selection raised some eye brows, including mine. But I think that Laca miss was key to how the game panned out. I firmly believe that if that had gone in, we would have taken a point or won that match with a goal on the counter.
Fine margins we say.
Arteta’s gotten this team performing to their best of their abilities. And the truth is, their best is not enough to beat Liverpool at Anfield on most days. Even then we hung ont till the 85th minute or so.
It seems like you were expecting a walk in the park. You say HE got your hopes high, when its YOU who got your hopes way too high, lol.
Resources he says. Mate we are dire in midfield crying for Aouar and Partey
In the latter Wenger years this game could have finished 8-2 or 6-1
Not if Wenger had the players we have now, no!
They’ll most likely loan partey to arsenal with an option to buy.
That would be ideal
Yes, that’s a possibility particularly if Torreira goes on loan the other way. I doubt AM will take him on different terms to Partey though – so options to buy at both ends of any deal I would think.
A week left, and NOW man decides to go to Spain! Transfer season pisses me right off.
Honestly I’ll take both. But we absolutely need Auoar more! After the absolute lack of creativity yesterday.
While I agree that Auoar is an amazingly creative and hard-working Cazorla-like midfielder, Partey is no slouch at creativity with an impressive number of assists for Athletico. Plus he really is a monster at breaking up opponents’ attacks. He would be an absolutely dream signing.
If I were to choose, I would prefer Partey, because he is not only physical, intelligent and mobile but also wery good at going forward. Plus: I think a lot of us forgetting the possibility to play Ceballos a bit further on the pitch.
Anyway:There is a great article about them on WhoScored.com.
https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/VVopwUu-50-x3JdGcC3_wg/Show/Transfer-debate-Partey-vs-Aouar-Who-do-Arsenal-need-more
We need some Aouar in the front, Partey in the back
It’s a bit of a pipe dream but I wonder if we can end up with both if Atletico is willing to budge on requiring immediate full cash up front.
We also need Lyon to. While it maybe a pipe dream, we need both of them.
I don’t pretend to know anything but reports are Lyon has dropped the asking price quite a bit
Those statistics are from different teams in different leagues. They mean absolutely nothing.
Great article thank you I just changed my mind..:-)
It’s kind of interesting that whoscored likes Partey more, but statsbomb says Partey shouldn’t be touched with a 10 ft pole. Now, whoscored is more of a buzz feed vs statsbomb being the NYT for data analysis.
Athletico is being a bit rich, aren’t they? Both the players and clubs want the transfer to happen but they can’t pay or commit to buy our player but expect us to do it with their player. What hypocrisy from them.
A loan for both players with commitment to buy in a year seems to make so much sense in this case.
True, but the difference is they probably prefer to keep Partey, and we probably prefer to get rid of Torreira. That puts them at an advantage that they’d be stupid not to try to leverage.
Good news, but let’s hope something actually comes of this. It’s pretty clear that we can’t buy Partey or Aouar (or anyone else) until we start to shift players out for reasonable fees. If it’s a loan only at this stage then it’s probably a loan coming in as well. The midfield does need strengthening so I suspect this will be the main (only) priority given the relatively sort time remaining in the window.
Good, I am so tired of our midfield. New blood needed.
I think Torreira’s value would be much higher after a season with AM/Simeone than it is at the moment, so a loan deal wouldn’t be detrimental to his ongoing valuation as an Arsenal asset.
A loan would not enable the purchase of another player, but I think I’m one of the very few people who does not see Partey or Aouar as all that special and certainly not worth the price tags attached to them.
Paragraph 1 yes
Paragraph 2 no. They are both far better than our current options. (minus Dani)
You think we should spend 90-100 million pounds on Partey and Aouar? The prices I am seeing quoted are approx 45million pounds each. I recognize they are better than what we have, but in the current climate I have my doubts that this would be money well spent. Again, as the downvotes suggest, I am in the minority on this one.
The thing is though mate, it’s not our money and we end up with a better team. Win win! 🙂
Agreed, it’s not our money, but we aren’t going to get that many transfers — I just hope management is right that these are the two players who are going to secure us the top four this year and lock it down for next as well.
Transfers aren’t a one way street. Ideally we sell them Torreira and then pay 20m extra for Partey. Then a couple of other sales to boost up for Aouar. We shall see in 10 days.
Should give them Guendouzi also to complete the Partey deal, although I’m surprised nobody seems to want to take a punt on the 21-year-old Frenchman. Surely he’s not that bad (attitude aside?) On transfermakt Guendouzi is listed as 32 million euros worth.
Torreira, Guendouzi, Ozil, Sokratis, Chambers, Mari, Soares.. Is this the most inefficient squad we have ever had in terms of players who actually get playing time?
Perfectly put.
When you bear in mind just how much we need to buy it’s frustrating that we have so much dead wood that we can’t get rid of and who are sucking up vital wage money.
The years of decline under Wemery are really hurting us.
Most of the signings since wenger left have been flops. Is that his fault as well. just move on from blaming wenger for everything its getting boring. Weve spent enought since he left where we should be in a must stronger position.
I hope we sign Thomas Partey, just to hear commentators say “Thomas, charging through the midfield, Thomas, it’s up for grabs now, Thomas!”
Or he tackles Vardy in the box “Partey stops the Vardy party”…
After their tactics in dealing with us on the Partey deal, I’m very strongly on the opinion that we do the same with them. The only way we sell is for good money, one full payment. Or they agree to be reasonable and we can do the deal, both players move and are happy, structured payment. I’m sick of us being hardballed on the transfer market.
What’s the likelihood that the funds from a Torreira sale finance the Aouar deal, and Elneny becomes our primary six?
I was under the impression that Arteta was going to try Willian in that creative midfield role. He’s a good dribbler, is not loathe to putting in a defensive shift and has an eye for a forward pass. As it stands our midfield options are two mediocre players (Xhaka and Elneny) and one (Ceballos) who, in my opinion, is yet to prove his quality. We simply can’t make top four worth that.
Oh, yes, what a game by Borges yesterday… 8 touches! Impressive.
Is it only me wishing 6th October comes sooner? I feel like the uncertainty and speculations on who’s going, who could be coming in might have some impact on the players’ overall psychological preparedness for the matches at hand. In my opinion it’s in the best interest of everybody at the club including us fans that we are over with the transfer window soonest so as to get fully focused in the season ahead with the players we (shall) have at our disposal. Plus it is such a relief not having to flip through hundreds of tweets and football sites… Read more »
i dont understand how people keep saying we need aouar more than partey because we need creative players?
what’s the point of having a creative player if we cant hold on the ball/control the game? we have one of the best strikers but we barely could get the ball to him!
This my exact train of thought too. A dynamic, combative and progressive midfielder is what the starting 11 needs most. Partey bears 3/3 of those traits, Aouar bears 2/3.
We cannot afford to loan. We need to make this a permanent deal.
22m on a make weight in kind for Partey which will bring the cost down for us to 23m way more affordable currently than Aouar.
Those inside the club will be more aware of what we can and cannot afford do do than you.