Arsenal have confirmed that Lucas Torreira has joined Galatasary on a permanent deal for a fee that will net the Gunners €6 million.
The Uruguay international’s move to Istanbul draws a line under a difficult four years at Emirates Stadium, two of which have been spent on loan at Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina respectively.
The 26-year-old had been expected to join the latter this summer but the Italian club refused to pay a pre-agreed buyout clause and wouldn’t pay the player or his agent what they wanted.
When Torreira arrived at Arsenal from Sampdoria in 2018 he appeared to be exactly what we were missing. Aggressive in the tackle, full of energy and with an eye for goal – as seen when he scored in the north London derby – he was impressive in his debut season under Unai Emery and popular on the terraces.
After the initial promise, things gradually started to unravel. Emery didn’t seem to trust him as a defensive midfielder and an ankle injury suffered three months into Arteta’s rein, coupled with the pandemic hiatus and the passing of his mother, seemed to throw him off kilter. By the end of the 2020 season, he wanted to leave the club and a move to Spain followed.
Everyone assumed Torreira would thrive at Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone but in reality, he was used sparingly as part of a squad that won La Liga. At no point did a permanent move look likely.
The midfielder enjoyed a much brighter season in Florence last time out and he hasn’t been short of suitors in recent months.
In total, Torreira appeared 89 times for the Gunners, scoring four goals and making six assists. Given we paid £27 million for him and are getting a fraction of that back, it’s fair to say things haven’t worked out well.
For his sake, we hope it works out for him in Turkey.
Best of luck, Lucas.
He looked a real talent when he arrived, but Man Utd are currently showing attitude is more important than any individual. Hoping we make a signing for midfield now.
Thank God he is gone
He didn’t want to be here, and let’s face it anyone whose had a job knows what that feels like. Hope he finds what he’s looking for, but glad he’s not hanging around Arsenal being miserable.
Why did he join us then? Players are getting away with murder. He signed the contract, nobody forced him to come to Arsenal.
Terriera just seemed mentally weak when he was with us. Maybe we didn’t do anything to address it or maybe he just made up his mind. Either way I’m glad he’s gone
I don’t think he knew he would be unhappy when he signed. The combination of the way he was handled by Emery, the death of his mother, and then covid was not predictable.
Literally, stop hating on the players and if you really need to spend your days getting annoyed, get pissed off at a business that enables, manipulates and ensures the parasitic hangers-on can make a fortune with little duty of care to the people playing.
Did you read the article at all? Things changed, some to do with hi some things done to him. All in all, a bad experience that caused him to want to move. The market at the end of the day dictated his fee. Simple.
I get what you’re saying but the jobs I no longer wanted didn’t involve getting wheel barrows of cash for doing something I loved.
Good luck to him.
I am so so happy that his dream has come true. So so happy
No serious good luck to you 😀
The Turkish rumours have finally borne fruit! All the best Lucas, shame it didn’t work out at Arsenal.
Hallelujah.
Now, FFS, get Tielemans in.
He’s been waiting by his tielephone all summer waiting for Edu’s call.
He probably has. To be honest, the whole thing is beginning to annoy me now. I can’t understand why it’s all taking so fucking long. Even now, we STILL haven’t made a formal bid. Given this club’s track record of bad luck, we are dicing with fate yet again.
We are a Thomas Partey long term injury from being back to our DM April woes. We need to address this NOW – or it’ll come back to bite us squarely on the arse, a penny to a pinch of shit.
All the best but thank fark that’s sorted, next out the door please!
How much did we pay for them to take him off our hands?
Are we paying his wages?
There must be some sweetener from Arsenal… Good news on a more serious note: now we can bring that extra body in the middle.
Look at the fan in the background, his face makes you think they signed the new Zidane. I am sure the fans will pay for him, just like their Fener pals did for Magic Mesut.
Hope it works out better for him there than it did for another Emery era no. 10…
Ope ooo!
Haha 😂
Omo iya mi….😁. COYG
Ope lopolopo.
Tiwa t’ope, o ju ope lo.
Glad he is gone. News around his transfer has been boring for over a year.
Awon Gunners!😂
😄
You know it’s a serious issue when you break out Yoruba!
A dupe!
I was so excited to get Lucas after he knocked Ronaldo on his ass at the 2018 World Cup. I never expected the goal and celebration against Sp*rs in the NLD to be his high point at Arsenal. All the best Lucas. I hope you find what you’re looking for.
I wish him all the best. He tried his best and always showed respect to the club and the supporters. And anyone who scores against Spuds and celebrates the way he did is good by me.
I have to disagree that he has always been respectful to the club, I mean saying you don’t want to stay in the home city of the club, because you don’t like it there while the club from that city is paying you top dollar to just fulfill a contract you signed willingly is not respectful. That is not my issue though, as a fan I have to say he was always correct to the fans, so I wish him good luck in Turkey.
Best of luck to him. Didn’t work out in the end for him at the Arsenal, but we will always have that goal against that lot.
Isn’t 6m Euro less than the reduced offer from Fiorentina? I think I read somewhere at the time of the 15m Euro deal collapsing that there was an offer of 7 to 8m Euro. I agree that it’s better for him to go but I don’t like that we have left 1.5m Euro on the table.
I think it was worth it just so that we didn’t set a precedent. I can imagine then in some deals where we have pre-agreed buyout clauses with the loanee club, they would then play the same game like Fiorentina and chance their arm on getting a reduced fee, despite the agreement. Similar how we have set the precedent of paying off players to leave will be difficult to shake.
Good point Nick. We’re sort of between a rock and a hard place with this one, and on balance I think you’re right, we need to show we are not pushovers. But, we also really need to shake this habit of paying players to leave.
From what I read, it wasn’t just that Fiorentina shorted Arsenal on the fee. There were also issues with what they wanted to pay Torreira and his agent, so it was killed from all sides.
I think a lot of the time it really comes down to not handing contracts to players that are far higher than they could earn elsewhere in the first place. Other times we wait too long to sell, making it clear to buyers they’re not in our plans – Leno really should have been sold last summer when we signed another starting calibre keeper. AMN we turned down good offers for when he had a bit of hype around him, but kept him around even though it’s obvious Arteta didn’t trust/rate him. There’s not much Edu can really do when… Read more »
I agree with you and I think the only one who should be unhappy about that is the accountant of Arsenal, who is looking purely at numbers only. I believe it was worth the 2 million or whatever to put the Italians in their place. We might have a few quid less, but they don’t have the player they clearly still wanted, just for the cheap. Strategically it makes sense I guess
But fuck Fiorentina right? If Arsenal can weather it, which lets face it they can, then i approve of the big screw you it sends to a club that acted in the manner that the Florentines did
I see that i am saying much the same as Nick here… just somewhay less diplomatically
I agree that this offer appears less than what Fiorentina’s low-ball offer was. But as pointed out elsewhere, Fiorentina wanted to cut Torreira’s salary as well.
I’m glad Arsenal held out though- it would have been terrible precedent to continue to deal with Fiorentina. It’s likely that Torreira was worth more than 6M to Fiorentina, and now they got… nuttin.
Still, I can’t help but think Torreira’s social media statements lowered his value dramatically. Sad, but thankfully this saga is over.
Amazing, great! Right, next round is on me guys 🍻
That’s fantastic? Are you going to Leicester? See you at the highbury library at 2pm
Cheers, Scwibble! Meet you before the game. I’ll bring Hamburglar and the Fry Guys, too!
Is this happening?
Sounds like Arteta still has another signing in mind for this window, fingers crossed this departure and a couple more free up enough space and funds to make that happen. And good luck to Toreira in Turkey, he looked very promising the first season we signed him.
Oh thank fuck. And wow. We actually got some money from a Turkish club. The world truly has turned on its head.
Anyway… shame it didn’t work out for him here. He’s a good player and looked like a great signing in his first half a season. I hope he’s happier in Turkey.
Didnt want to be here, but anyone who scored against them is all good with me. Vamos Lucas!
This is not the way to run a business. Eventually it will catch up with us. Pepe will be next for 10-15 million. There must be a better way to handle these situations.
Whenever Pepe’s name comes up, I imagine what our squad would be like now if we had sent 72m wisely instead of on him. It’s a good example of how off-field competence has a direct impact on on-field performance.
I think about that sort of thing sometimes. What if we got someone who really worked out, and then Emery might have been a bit more successful, and then maybe he wins that Europa League final and doesn’t get sacked, and then we continue to buy a player here and there, and we don’t have Arteta and the project like we do now. In the end I conclude that we are on a good path now and I wouldn’t want to change what got us here
As good as Arteta has done, I have a feeling that the crown of Arsenal’s rebuild will be a change of manager.
I am not fully convinced Arteta can foster that ruthlessness needed to win the EPL now.
He is looking more like Arsene in his latter years – a fatherly figure seemingly more interested in the comfort of players than their output on the field.
I’d wholeheartedly agree with you on that but I’m going to park it for this season and see how it goes. It’s champions league or bust for Mikel
Are you watching in a different dimension? Arteta has been pretty ruthless. He dropped Leno after three losses last season, kicked out Guendouzi, Ozil, Kolasinac, Mustafi (despite actually getting a tune out of him), Aubameyang… the list goes on. He’s sidelined our record signing. He’s extremely ruthless and won’t have players on board who don’t have the right mentality.
In that respect he’s nothing like Wenger especially not latter years Wenger.
All managers have their favourites but by and large Arteta seems to reward good performances.
You miss my point. I am not talking about coming down hard on indiscipline; even managers or relegation teams do that. I am talking about ruthlessness on the field of play. That is what managers like Pep, Klopp, and sad to add, Conte have in abundance. Arsenal players still have this annoying tendency of taking their foot gradually off the pedal when they are in the lead. That push to keep going and making it difficult for the opponent to even think of fighting back comes from the gaffer. Arteta doesn’t seem to have that. He would have ironed that… Read more »
There has to be a better way of doing these things going forward, but hopefully this amongst the last of a sweep of screw ups that were made when making these signings and handing out these contracts from around 2017 to 2020… a lot of which can be directed at Gazides, Sanllehi, Mislentet, Emery, and i hate to say it but Arsene too, more the current crop even if the latter are hardly without their own faults ie Willian.
Point is i dont get the impression so much that we are still doing this crap a la Manchester United
What’s Turkish for “I want to play for Boca”?
Good riddance.
Finally! *Sighs* Have a great time at Galatasaray, Lucas. Thanks for the time spent with us!!
Good luck for torreria, I feel like he would have thrived if emery didn’t mess with his position but he still stayed professional even with a tough time for the lad with the passing of his mum during covid.
Quality player hope he kills it in turkey and can play for a big club in turkey
Thought he would be like Kanté without the pace for us and he showed promise early on. In the end we eat the better part of 20M on a player entering his prime. Most of that loss is a direct consequence of his whingeing and emotional fragility.
The whole issue started when Emery played him being the strikers instead of as a CDM.
Hope we inserted some sort of clause for % of future sales
One of Dracula’s more stupid ideas – and he had plenty of those.
Oh FFS mate, now I can’t think of him any other way! Cheers.
😂
🧛🏻♂️ “Good Ebening….”
🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇
He was the one Mislentat signing that I was absolutely sure was not a mistake. I cannot believe how fast football changes. All the best to him.
Happy to see him smiling. Hope it works well for him. Good luck, Lucas!
Wishing you all the best, Lucas.
Blessings 🙏🏾
Didn’t setlle in London, let’s see how he settles in Istanbul.
Good luck, Lucas, thanks for the memories (especially that good against Sp*rs)