Arsenal: The hard truth facing Lucas Torreira and his future

Lucas Torreira continues to linger as a substitute on the Arsenal bench, but for both himself and the team as a whole, we need to face some hard truths.

When Lucas Torreira first signed for Arsenal, I had two things in mind—1. him tackling Ronaldo in the 2018 World Cup, 2. this is the defensive midfielder we have waited so long to finally land. And he was comparable to N’Golo Kante? What’s not to like.

That took a big hit when, after his first year at the club, he was supposedly seeking a premature exit back to Italy because he hadn’t settled in England. That never ended up happening, but the seed was planted. It wasn’t clear if he was right for the club or not.

Nowadays, without Unai Emery playing him out of position, he hasn’t been playing at all. Or when he has, he’s been as a substitute, but a relatively ineffective one. It looks like, as it stands, he isn’t progressing as his potential at the club is already bumping against the ceiling.

As much as we all love his tenacity, we have to start facing some hard truths here, brought on in part by the continued links to Thomas Partey—links that would run the club about £42m. Not exactly an easily stomachable fee to pay.

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But if you do land him, you then likely have to consider letting Torreira go. Because what purpose does a limited use midfielder have when a new, expensive, specific midfielder does everything that the previous guy did, but more effectively and with greater international acclaim?

Essentially, if Torreira isn’t good enough to get into the XI, and struggles to come on as a sub, but still fetches a nice fee, wouldn’t it make more sense to pocket that cash now, while he’s young and maintains a decent value yet, and using that cash towards someone who can challenge for a place in the XI?

As it stands, Torreira couldn’t break into the XI, no chance. Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos have been tremendous, and I have to believe that in this system, Matteo Guendouzi has better upside than Torreira. Thus, ruthlessly speaking, Torreira should be the makeweight towards landing a more beneficial midfielder.

It’s all about practicality. We are going to get a great sense for how Arteta handles everything off the pitch in his first summer in charge of the club. But if it’s anything like how he handles things on the pitch, I’m betting on ruthlessness and that ‘p’ word again—practicality.