There’s no real leverage for a selling club when it comes to a player who’s clearly not in the manager’s plan and they’ve entered the final year of their contract, so the best option is simply to take what you can and move on.
Lucas Torreira arrived at Arsenal with plenty of promise as a gritty midfielder who would bring aggression and quality to the team, but he couldn’t replicate his Serie A form and a loan move to Atletico Madrid didn’t work out either.
He did impress in Italy last season with a loan move at Fiorentina, and the Evening Standard are now reporting that a return to Serie A is the most likely outcome for the Uruguayan star.
They confirm that Fiorentina refused to pay the agreed fee of £12.5m which would’ve made his move permanent, but Juventus and Roma are now showing interest and it’s expected that he will make a move soon.
That interest is good news for the Gunners as they’re likely to be able to match his wage demands so it reduces the likelihood of having to eat some of his salary for the final year of his deal, while they could also play the two clubs off against each other to bump up his transfer fee slightly too.
There’s no sign at all of an extension so an exit now makes sense for all involved, and it doesn’t sound like it’s that far away from happening.
