When Arsenal allowed Lucas Torreira to join Fiorentina on loan last summer, it was agreed that the Italian side would have the option to buy the Uruguay international for €15 million.
While there was no obligation to complete a deal, it was widely assumed La Viola would green-light the transfer given the midfielder was a near ever-present in their midfield.
Unfortunately for Lucas, who has enjoyed his return to Italy, his hosts have cold feet. Or rather, they want to take advantage of the player’s enthusiasm for life in Florence by bartering down his wages and the price they are willing to pay us.
His agent has gone public on the issue and seems to suggest the 26-year-old is destined to return to London.
“The basic problem is that Lucas was earning a higher salary at Arsenal than he did in Florence,” representative Pablo Bentancur told Fiorentinanews.com [translated by Sport Witness].
“When we agreed on the €1.5m loan [fee] with Arsenal last summer, I had the English club agree that Fiorentina would not pay that money if Lucas played at least 25 games.
“With this option we have set the right of redemption at €15m, payable in six instalments of €2.5m by 2025.
“We had agreed on a salary with Fiorentina for the coming seasons of €2.7m net per year.
“Fiorentina, however, now want to lower both the salary and the cost of the transfer fee. We couldn’t accept this and even Arsenal didn’t accept it either. Now Lucas has a contract with the Gunners until June 30, 2023.”
He added: “Lucas loves, loves the city of Florence. He is very disappointed, there is little to add. Disappointed for the behaviour of the club obviously, not for the football experience or the city, I repeat, he had fallen in love with Florence.”
Having already been told once by Arteta that there’s no place for him at Arsenal, we suspect it’ll be the same message when he returns for pre-season in June.
Here’s hoping someone else comes in for him quickly because we could do with the cash – his contract runs until 2023 – and the player deserves to find some stability.
Didn’t they get lots if money for Vlahovic? At least Torreira’s value is ok because he had a good season. Hopefully another team will pick him up.
I don’t like how he only has one year left on his contact. It makes the club a bit desperate to get a sale this summer.
The club put the “obligation to buy” condition in the wrong deal.
Don’t understand the dislikes, OP is clearly referring to the ridiculously cheap deal for Mavropanos. Understand that fans see it differently now as we’re afforded hindsight, but even at the root of it it’s all weird. You insert an obligation to buy subject to appearance, at a very cheap price that’s way below market. Yet you don’t put any obligations for a fairly assessed price, all the more as the player only has 2 years left at the start of the loan? Despite the incomings we’re falling way way short on our outgoing deals. Martinez and Willock aside we’ve been… Read more »
I think I’m right in saying he was bought the same year as Pepe and Saliba. What an absolute shit show of a transfer window that was.
This transfer never gets the same attention as the other two, but maybe the most ridiculous. Although he is an ok player, he was never ever physically up for the PL and how they didn’t know that before is beyond me.
He was brought in the year before.
Not the same window.
Pepe has not worked out, but I’m not sure how acquiring the Ligue 1 young player of the year is part of a shit show.
Ah right, thought he was the same window.
Saliba, he hasn’t played in 3 years for us and we could of done with investment in other areas.I still hope and think he will come in and do well. Pepe hasn’t been O.K.
But I my point remains that Lucas was a really poor signing. He just doesn’t have the physical attributes for PL.
Torreira fit in perfectly with Uruguay, a team famous for its unyielding physical play. Arsenal supporters loved him in the beginning–snapping into challenges, constant hounding of opponents to regain possession. Even if you are right, that ultimately he was physically overmatched in England, I don’t think that was apparent, or even likely, beforehand. I suspect it was his unhappiness with his life in England off the pitch as much as on that led to his loan.
Torreira did well until Emery decided he was a 10
Yes, I understand that he just couldn’t settle in England. It wasn’t a bad buy on a footballing basis.
Emery ruined him and Mikel didn’t know what to do with him. I thought he could do a job for us and probably still could but I’m not sure he settled in London either.
Terrible take..
You think spending a combined £125M on those three players was a good idea?
Why act like you don’t know why Raul got fired?
Pepe’s price tag was down to Raul Sanllehi and some decidedly dodgy dealings – it wasn’t the player’s fault.
Wow. Just wow. 😂 First of all; we had Torreira before we signed Pepe and Saliba. Torreira – as you would appear to have forgotten – scored an absolute beauty against the Spuds at the Emirates in the fall of 2018 – we signed Pepe and Saliba in the summer of 2019. Secondly, all three players are quality players – but all share one thing in common; they have all – through no fault of their own – seemingly failed to impress Mikel Arteta enough to command a regular place in the team. That is purely down to Arteta –… Read more »
Is he physically that different to NGolo Kante? He seems to have done alright in the PL
Kante weighs about 15% more (22 pounds) and seems very strong for his size.
Also Kante is lightning covering the pitch, has a high top end as well as acceleration
Torreira is quick over the first few strides, but is slow over longer distances when the game is stretched – when goals are often scored
Just like how there are 6’4 players who are fast and strong and 6’4 players who are (comparatively) slow and weak
Torreira is a good player, just not for the PL
I’d still have him back. He’s got something about him and he seems to have just been written off after poor form under Emery. I doubt Arteta will give him a chance though.
He hates London. Fine player, but if he’s miserable he won’t perform.
Maybe he can live in Florence and play for Arsenal? Haha
He should be given a chance.
In the current market and given our threadbare squad that was so woefully exposed in the closing stages of this season, Arteta would be an absolute fool not to chance his arm with this lad – at least as a squad member.
I’d agree the lad has talent just needs the right coach to get the best out of him.
He just got player of the month for Florence 2 months in a row. I’m sure he could come back and do a job for us. He was fantastic until emery decided he wasn’t
His fatal weakness is his passing ability. He didn’t start life as a central.midfielder. he started life as a striker. He realistically only had one season as a central mid and that was just the season before we bought him. he is a traditional crunching tackle screening midfielder. Perfect for Italian teams who really compress the space. But for the style that arsenal tend to play where the midfield tend to have large spaces around them, cover shadows/positioning are just as important as making a tackle. Diving in for a tackle and missing is considered too risky. Italian teams and… Read more »
Had a really good season at Fiorentina finishing 7th (no injuries , 5 goals). Might be able to fetch more than the £13m agreed last summer when clubs had less money… 🤞
In my opinion, we could have used him when Partey got injured and a clearly unprepared Lokonga was thrown on to face Brighton at the Emirates and Southampton at the Dell – six points down the drain.
Arteta would do well to revise his opinion of this guy, who loves Arsenal with a passion, is still only 26 and a much better player (at the moment) than Sambi.
It’s things like this where Arteta is getting it wrong – and he needs to get it right next season. No excuses.
could not agree with you more
Well said Q.
The Dell? Where have you been for the last 21 years?
We all know what he meant, idiot.
Sorry!
Showing my age there…!! 😂
Nice to see someone took it in the spirit it was written.
Well said sir. We really blew the opportunity for champions league this season. Next season qualifying is a must. For me it’s next season or time to go for Arteta. I so want him to succeed but have this nagging doubt in me that has not left yet.
Where do you get the idea that he “loves Arsenal with a passion?” If anything he seemed desperate to get away as soon as he could, and it certainly doesn’t look like he’ll be coming back by choice if he does.
Look at the joy on his face when he scored that goal against the trophy dodgers – and tell me he doesn’t love the Arsenal. 😉
https://youtu.be/V2I_fJJnLvc
Lakonga was playing really well at the beginning of the season, but was benched for months and then expected to be a one man midfield in place of Partey. I’ve never thought Torreira was suited to the Premier League.
I agree – he started well enough, but he way out of his depth against Brighton and Southampton when we needed cool heads and goals.
Still, that’s what having a mix of youth and experienced players is all about. 😉
Can we just stop loaning players to italian teams please? Almost never works out. And when it does its always “small payments over the next 10 years” type deal.
Yeh. £1.5m a year for a player we paid £20m for is a really good deal for them. It’s like the equivalent of us paying £7.5m for him. They had no intention of keeping him. They just wanted the cheap 1 season loan..
I’m beginning to detest those Italian teams — Roma, Juve, Fiorentina… the lot of them. Their transfer dealings are appalling, to say the least. They want to sell their players for premium fees but haggle over other clubs players like they are some low quality fish in the market. That’s bottom-barrell behavior.
Let’s hope Reiss skates through Mourinhos parked bus and stuffs it in the far corner
Tbf, they may be tricky to deal with, but you can’t blame them for looking after their club’s financial interests. And fans of a richer club demanding of a smaller club ‘why won’t you give us more money?!’ feels a bit silly. If they like the player but not enough that he’s worth £13m to them, then fair enough, there’s no scam going on It’s several EPL clubs, petro clubs, Barca and Real desperately chucking hundreds of millions away at transfers, agents and wages – for players half the time they don’t really need – that are skewing competition, forcing… Read more »
Nah, they got gobs of money for Vlahovic, they knew the price for Lucas when they arranged the loan. Now they’re coming in lowballing. That’s just asshole negotiating. I brush my hand under my chin at them in disgust….
Yeah true, but maybe we could learn a thing or two from them then!!
Can we just stop loaning out players, with the relative experience we need, to sustain a squad trying to get itself into the ECL….?
Period.
You just know the same thing is going to happen with Pablo Mari too – Wants to stay at Udinese, doesn’t have a place at Arsenal, worth much less than say Torreira but should still get us around £4M on the open market – Udinese will offer us a grand and a bag of balls.
Their owners are no good!
Oh that’s such a good point!! Unfortunately the best league for him to excel is Italy.
More defensive, ultra compact. I haven’t watched Fiorentina games but would be interested to see if the solid run of games he got has altered his vision, passing and press resistance.
Off topic, but I’m sure we’ll all agree that the cretin in question really now needs to change his name to;
CUNT ZOUMA.
I sincerely hope the inmates of whatever HMS Prison establishment he is now sent to all happen to support Millwall and duly kick seven colours of shit out of him in the showers, whilst the screws, who by hilarious coincidence also happen to support Millwall, stand aside, turn a blind eye and laugh their heads off.
Because Millwall fans are such renowned feline enthusiasts?
That is almost as dumb a fucking response as it would be if I were to ask you if you advocated cruelty to animals.
Almost.
What kind of a fuckwit answer is that, you stupid prick? Q is referring to Millwall’s longstanding hatred for West Ham. I personally hope Zouma gets beaten to a pulp inside for his cruelty to an tiny defenceless animal.
No need for that kind of thing on this blog
So you’re defending a vile moron who has been found guilty of vile animal abuse? Hello? Morals? Anyone at home? Twat.
Read the thread again and try to explain how anyone is defending animal abuse?
Chepetin was being defensive against comments made against a guy who has been found guilty of animal abuse. Easy enough for you to understand now? Thickshit.
No he wasn’t
Oh fuck off, you fucking troll
Like fuck they did. They defended Zenith who you verbally abused, after you stupidly assumed they were defending animal abuse
They were defending Zenith who was defending Kurt Zouma, who was found guilty of animal abuse. But listen, if you’re too thick to understand, then no wonder this society is fucked. Animal abuser gets called out and guy who calls out animal abuser gets online hate from idiots who deliberately try and make it an issue about race. You sad cretins.
Jesus christ questioning the significance of Millwall fans in Qwalitee’s prison violence fantasy does not equal defending animal abuse! You’ve completely lost the plot!
You still don’t get it. Zenith was making it an issue about race and defending a bloke who was today found guilty of animal abuse. Scroll below and you’ll see he’s admitted to it, admitted he made a mistake and apologised for it! Doesn’t matter how you idiots dress it up.
If they mistakenly thought Q mentioned Millwall fans because of their far right element, and sought to clarify that he wasn’t. How does that mean they were defending Zouma or animal abuse? I’m sure Q was glad to be able to clear up that point
Don’t fucking try to paint me as someone who doesn’t care about animal welfare
CC you sound like a real pleasant person, lets grab a beer
I hear talk of animals feeling scared and frightened, but how is this different to any animal bred in captivity for human consumption.
Here we are valuing one animal higher than another. Are cattle, poultry and sea…food not animals?
It’s all a bit selective and convenient for a lot of people.
I think there’s a marked moral difference between humane strategic farming and blatant thug cowardice towards a domestic pet – but I also kinda get where you’re coming from in the grander scheme of things.
I really wish I’d shut up now!! 😂
Er, I genuinely thought he was referring to Millwall’s history of having a pretty strong national front element among their fanbase, their booing of taking the knee etc and linking that to the Zouma conviction, which would have been in poor taste,- however I completely overlooked what he was getting at, so; I was incorrect. I’m sorry it upset you so much. Hope your day improves.
Charlie was correct; I was referring to the hatred between West Ham and Millwall.
I would never advocate the actions of the NF or the far right. My post was definitely not intended to reference any racial prejudice and I apologise to anyone who may have interpreted it as much.
But I also happen to think Curt Zouma is a cunt!! 😊👍
It’s Q you should be apologising to. Try not to jump to idiotic conclusions in future.
Mr. Blogs, is moderator still working? ^^
I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve merely called out a few idiots on here who by their own irresponsible posts have deemed it necessary to defend a man who today was found guilty of animal abuse. Yeah, I resorted to name calling, which maybe I shouldn’t have, but animal abuse is not a subject to be taken lightly. Not by anyone normal anyway.
Nor is verbal abuse either or any kind of abuse. Being abusive by defending victims of abuse doesn’t seem to be the best way about this. I think that’s what everyone is referring to
Blimey, what a can of worms I’ve opened up here…! 😂
Sorry Blogs!! 😂
People, it was meant as a light hearted tongue in cheek way of commenting on an otherwise very grim and downright disturbing subject – so I guess tempers were bound to run quite high.
There’s a definite lesson here for yours truly – I think I’ll just stick to Spurs-bashing in the future..!!! 😂
Lets make that 2 beers!
Considering the Vlahovic stuff too, we should agree by now that Fiorentina are run by a bunch of clowns.
He’s a hardy chap in midfield.
We cud do with him.
Would have been a decent player when Partey was out.
Wud
Yeah he can be cover for partey next season 👍
Fiorentina and their Shylock stance- disgraceful.
Forgot he is still relatively young. Never thought he was that bad for us that he couldn’t be a sub when Partey was injured or Xhaka was suspended.
Lucas was a really good signing when he arrived. He dovetailed pretty well with Granit. He was very athletic. I remember the north London derby. Things went wrong when Emery started playing him further up the pitch. When I look at our failings this season, it really hurts because Lucas would have been a very useful squad player. Arteta needs to improve on his man management skills. Pepe wasn’t given a chance to play, Auba was left to go for free😥
Yeah, I’d forgotten about Emery playing him as an attacking mid. We have MO and ESR now, I can see Lucas getting a lot of minutes as cover and in cups. Arteta will give him a chance to impress, and I hope Lucas gives London a second chance.
…but Torreira’s minutes will come at the expense of Elneny, if we keep them both.
I was wondering what was all his tweet about after Gabi was given his shirt number. Now I get it.
Stop defending animal abuse!
According to Nico Shera, Juve have talked to Partey’s agent and are now talking to Arsenal about Partey.
Think this one is going to happen. Partey is the sort of physical playmaker who Allegri would go ga-ga over. Arteta sees it as a chance to get rid of a player who is rarely on the pitch. Maybe Arsenal get Arthur and Weston McKennie in return.
Nicolo Schira
We should consider it. All told Partey has proven a poor signing imo
Gone from hero to zero.
No real reason given.
Back to square one.
What must Torreira be feeling.
He has all the go forward qualities Arteta seems to want, his defensive ability or lack of must be something Arteta has identified???
Torreira had good energy but ultimately not tall or physically imposing enough for the midfield battles in the Premier League
6 installments of 2.5Mn in 3 years?!??? Wth is wrong with us… We’re getting way too desperate and everyone seems to know this too!
Another proof of a Mafia Italian club
Well, they just want him for the cheap, thinking that maybe an unhappy player will pressure Arsenal to let him go for different conditions. The agent seems rather reasonable in this case. Lucas had a good season, maybe there are other clubs who are willing to pay the same amount we agreed with Fiorentina, potentially even in the north of Italy. In any case it should be made clear to the agent and maybe even publicly, that Fiorentina need not initiate any form of contact regarding Lucas, unless it is a binding written offer for the original amount, all other… Read more »
Buggers! Those shit heads wants to play a fast one on us
Why are we complaining about having a workhorse at our disposal.surely this guy can add steel to our squad for next season!he is better than most of our cuZeedirrent midfield!!!!