Arsenal close to crucial 4th transfer departure

Arsenal have opened their Premier League account with two defeats on the bounce and, briefly, all the attention turned away from the transfer ongoings rumbling away in the background.

However, falling to a successive 2-0 loss to Chelsea has returned the focus towards what needs doing in the market as both additions and departures have to be sanctioned.

Watching Cedric struggle all game and the clearly still raw Gabriel Martinelli make the improper runs in attack continued to keep eyes fixed on what can still be improved this window. As is well known, nothing will take place until sales can be made with a whole host of players in the shop window between now and August 31.

Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette are both trying to be moved on, and while the club are listening to offers for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, it’s highly unlikely that any satisfactory bids, if any at all, will follow.

Arsenal close to crucial 4th transfer departure as Lucas Torreira nears loan move to Fiorentina in the summer window

Sead Kolasinac is said to be nearing the exit door while Hector Bellerin is also available for transfer, with Hale End pair Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson two more who could leave in the coming days.

In midfield, the curious case of Lucas Torreira finally looks like being sorted.

As per football.london, the Uruguayan is closing in on a move to Fiorentina (heard this before) on an initial loan move, one that will see the Italian side cover all of his wages.

Any hopes of recouping much of the £26m paid for his services in 2018 should have been bottled up and tossed into the Atlantic Ocean. Gianluca Di Marzio lists the deal as a €1.5m loan fee with option to buy €15m. An obligation? It appears not.

It’s incredible, really, how a serviceable midfielder’s career has been handled in such a way that he had become virtually unsellable.

He wasn’t settled in London, sure, but he will have been far more use in the squad than someone like Mohamed Elneny. Even one season of a not overly content Torreira could have turned up on matchdays and done a job for long enough to build at least some stock in the bank before being sold a year later.

With his agent informing the club that he had been willing to stay and fight for his place in the squad this season before Arteta revealed he wasn’t in his plans, the fact a conclusion draws near with the guarantee of a financial injection – at least in a loan fee with a possible permanent move – at least sees the beginning of movement.

Even if the fee may be grossly undesirable and not assured, it’s wages gone and money that could be brought in. Torreira deserves a good move and Serie A suits him. Arsenal have dug themselves a hole with this seemingly the only route out.