5 transfers Arsenal are failing to complete this summer

5. Lucas Torreira

Age: 25
Contract expiry: 2023
Rumoured wages: £75k-per-week

What a complete and utter mess Arsenal have plunged themselves in with Lucas Torreira.

Sometimes managers just don’t fancy players. Well, in truth, quite a lot of the time managers don’t fancy players. Even though Torreira started the a fair few of Arteta’s first matches in charge until he suffered, that setback proved to be the end.

Opting to keep on board Mohamed Elneny as the defensive midfield option over the Uruguayan for his first full season in charge, Arsenal and Arteta succeeded in making a perfectly fine player turn into someone virtually worthless. He cost £26m. Nobody wants to pay any money for him.

There are mitigating factors, such as him not settling in London and the Premier League as well as losing his mother to COVID-19 last season, but even if he doesn’t like being stuck in November weather all year round he can still do his job. Seeing out another season with the 41 appearances Elneny got would have at least made him marketable and, crucially, useful.

Torreira is not an excellent player. He hit a purple patch not long after signing but, at the very least, has proved himself to be more useful than Elneny.

Now he’s over in Madrid training by himself and getting paid to do nothing. He hasn’t played a game for Arsenal in over 365 days.

Arteta took a strong stance on the player and fair enough. But there is nothing worthwhile about doing so if the end result is having a player you paid very good money for turn out to be completely unsellable.

Will he move back to Italy? The most likely outcome is he gets loaned somewhere with an option to buy that the club he’s at turns down, just to return to Arsenal worth possibly even less in 12 months time.

A real mess.