BBC confirms Torreira to Arsenal this week – but no N’Zonzi

There seems to be some discrepancy between the BBC and Sky this weekend. These are thought to be the most reliable sources of facts from the transfer window because of all their close contacts at Arsenal as well as all the biggest clubs around, but they are giving out conflicting information.

Sky last night “understands” that the Gunners have opened talks with Sevilla over the transfer of Steven N’Zonzi, who has played successfully under Unai Emery in the past.

But according to the ‘Arsenal oracle’ David Ornstein of the BBC, the gunners will not sign anyone after Lucas Torreira has his medical this week. He wrote:

Arsenal hope to complete the £26m signing of Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria next week.

The Gunners have agreements in place with their Serie A counterparts.

The 22-year-old needs to undergo a medical and put pen to paper before the deal can be confirmed.

The timing will depend on whether he flies straight from Russia to London now Uruguay are out of the World Cup following their quarter-final defeat to France, or travels via his homeland.

His arrival will finish off Arsenal’s major recruitment this summer, although they are expected to bring in another younger player before the transfer window closes on 9 August.

So who is more likely to be right? Ornstein is most Arsenal fans’ guru, and I think we are more likely to believe the BBC man, but Sky seem so sure we are also after N’Zonzi….

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49 Comments

  1. Realistically there would be no more new midfielder after Torreira, because Arsenal already have many midfielders. Unless Arsenal would sell two midfielders

    But Arsenal surprised us with Aubameyang purchase, just several months after Lacazette’s arrival. Hence they might surprise us again

    Maybe we would see the fans’ favorite midfielders leave, instead of the most hated ones (Xhaka’s extension). Or maybe we would get a winger instead, after Torreira

    1. Are you honestly saying that Arsenal fans “hate” Xhaka? What a disgusting way to show support to the players on our team. Say what you like about Xhaka, but he gives everything that he can for Arsenal, not once has he ever said anything bad or against the club or fans, so to say that you “hate” him is just so childish and nasty.

      Do you think it’s going to make him play better by getting on his back all of the time? No, of course not, quite the opposite. Why is it the Arsenals fan-base are the only ones that openly attack their players on a regular basis? It really is pathetic and perhaps you should consider looking up the dictionary definition of the word “support”.

      1. Paying the highest prices in World Football gives us the absolute right to give our opinion on ANY player.Xhaka has underachieved since he arrived at the Club and has only rarely shown the form of a £35m signing.He has given himself a mountain to climb to get into the side this season and if he doesn’t deliver then he will soon find himself OUT of the side and OUT of the Club.

        1. But in all honesty Phil, have you answered D’s points?
          I personally don’t hate any Arsenal player and I have paid my money for over sixty years.
          I do admit my loathing for zRVP and Nasri, however that was once they had left the club.
          Xhaka has been recognised by our manager and given a new four year contract, so I believe we should wait and see instead of crucifying a player relentlessly.
          I make a comparison with the way Ozil is being treated by (it seems) the same section of fans.
          Season ticket prices should have nothing to do with it, but you are wrong in your ascertions about paying the highest prices in the world and I hope to present these facts after I have visited one last club’s website.

          1. I’m not too sure of your point here Ken.I can accept all supporters have a right to voice an opinion.D suggested the fans were wrong in attacking the performances of Xhaka.Some of his performances were quite frankly indefensible.As a supporter I surely have a right to state my displeasure of the player.
            I happen to believe we have a potentially very good player in Xhaka.Wenger failed miserably to get the player to perform to the standards required by both a £35m player and Arsenal Football Club.
            I believe you have tried to read something into my reply to D that simply isn’t there.Xhaka has rarely looked good enough as a player worth the money Wenger allowed to pay for him.I state that this Manager will either get him to perform or will get rid of him.

  2. Sky was reliable before, but now its started to speculate a lot more with its ‘sources’ BS. BBC is more reliable to any other outlets out there. Sky might be right about N’Zonzi, but I’ll be skeptical

    1. But unlike other BS rumor websites Sky sports actually put the source of the bs rumor when they post on their site
      e.g Man Utd are preparing a shock late bid to stop Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo joining Juventus (Express) i see express i know its shit.

      So when you see sky sources it is from sky when you see other newspapers its most likely bs rumor.

      1. I’m with Darwin, hate that Sky took this route. They have a believable meter, how believable do we find it. Also that occurred to me too Ackshay, is this from a genuine Sky source or is it only on their rumor page. When it’s genuine on Sky they usually have transfer centre back it up. Sky has nosedived with this stuff though.

        1. exactly they have a rumor page and lately have been posting rumors from other media like daily star or express. i think they do that because before there sometimes used to be hours between updates when sky was only posting from reliable SKY SOURCES. to increase updates they post other media rumors.

          If i don’t see ‘according to sky sources’ on their update, i don’t believe it.

          1. I don’t believe any of the fish wraps to be honest.

            Didn’t Sky just have a wind up piece yesterday or the day before? Despite comments by Torreria’s father, Sky still had article about Torreria deal U-turn or some hijack.

            Torreria himself said he’s on the way for medical soon.

            Another fish wrap media guessing and getting it wrong. Again.

  3. it could be true that we are after the both of them, we seem to forget that we could have only 1 DM. that is Toreira, if he gets injured we are back to square one.. the Wenger team.
    yes I know you will tell me we have elneny, xaka, and even AMN. but you forget these midfielders never cut it anywhere as DMs. xaka didn’t play as a DM at his former club and country, Elneny the same, AMN still doesn’t have defensive discipline yet. so what happens when we don’t have Toreira fit?

    again numbers wise we are still not well stocked.
    sold mids from Last summer.
    OX,
    le Coq
    Santi
    Jack

    mids bought from that summer,

    imminently Lucas Toreira

    he maybe a supper DM but even him can’t replace 4 midfielders alone..

    every other big team has more than one DM,
    man u, Matic, Herrera and now Fred
    Chelsea kante, drink water,
    Liverpool had Can, handerson, now have keita, fabinho,
    spurds have Wanyama, ndembele and deir,

    infact Al go as far as saying, if we don’t get both ad be Abit dissatisfied..

    so makes alot of sense to me

    1. Ankoanko, I agree with your reasoning. There are also other issues at play. Ramsay is yet to sign the contract extension offered by by Arsenal; he will be given a deadline to sign or be sold. A replacement would therefore be required and affordable based on the transfer fee for Ramsay.
      Also Arsenal were interested in Banega, who has decided to stay at Seville, thus Arsenal’s revived interest in N’zonzi makes sense.

  4. Ornstein has no more
    idea than you or I.
    After signing what every one
    expected i:e a GK a CB and RB
    and now the last essential player a DM
    its easy to say this will be the end of major signings.
    If any big player leaves later he can say well I always knew it was possible
    so and so could leave and this confirms my suspicions.
    Who ever is bought in he will say I knew this player was on the radar.
    Honestly Ornstein knows less than Kev just gets paid a lot more.

    1. Sorry have to disagree Ornstein is very reliable when giving out arsenal news he rarely gets it wrong def more reliable then kev who said Wilshire had signed for fenerbache that looks unlikely as he looks like going to west ham and Ramsey has signed a new 5 year contract according to kev well no news of that either has come out so he only needs 1 more wrong piece of done deals and you got a hatrick kev well done!!⚽️⚽️⚽️??

      1. Ornstein is overrated. He only talks when everything is almost done and everyone already know what is going on.

        1. Ornstein is in the loop, he doesn’t read gossip columns or scour a new twitter handle every season nor does he wait for publications so to read from their sources. He has his own sources and knows the people who have sources inside football. He waits til it gets from the horses mouth to one of his sources and it’s a different reason he has for waiting til it’s imminent. Sometimes because people are being tight lipped also to keep his credibility he might hold off in case of late competition. His links are usually true and when he says it’s done from what I’ve seen they got done.

          1. Also with Ornstein. He doesn’t act like he knows everything that goes on. Every player Arsenal signed he didn’t act like he knew it all in the first place, same with our targets he doesn’t act like he knows them all. He has sources but obviously he has a limited amount. The guys online talk about every signing that gets done, try to grab credit. Every target they speak about too esp when it has legs. Then when we sign them they act all like see, told ya. Then the ones that don’t happen get ready for excuses. It’s a rain dance, pure and simple. Ornstein speaks about what he knows and does not act like he knows everything.

        2. No. I disagree.
          Transfer market is still wide open and he says our major transfer biz is finished after Torreira confirmation.
          He knows that we lack winger(s), yet he says our biz is over in this transfer mart. That is authority, if it so happens.

  5. I would love a paring of Nzonzi and Torreira in a 4231 formation….No more 6-0 8-2 beatings….Arsenal for life

  6. lets bring in both Torreira and Nzonzi

    we need quality players to rotate and provide competition

  7. Sign N’Zonzi and play him with Torreira in CM. Xhaka is a joke and I don’t know why he should be in our starting 11. Play Mkhitaryan as the No10 (he brings goals, assists and hard wirk). That is much more balanced and powerful midfield for me.

  8. Age is not on N’zonzi’s side and he’s damn expensive for a 29 year old. Cheaper options abound in the premiership eg Doucoure and why not try get Andre Gomes, Ceballos or Kovacic on loan as madrid wouldn’t be open to selling either of them

    1. Brilliant and good ideal. We have too many 29 years old players already. Auba, Mhiki, Ozil, Perez, Papa, and Ramsey, Welbeck, who are 28. We need to get in quality players who are 26 and under.

  9. Lucas Torreira and Nzonzi can operate perfectly in midfield even Torreira Eleny and Ramsey in midfield is perfect too.
    Arsenal need a direct winger and a Carzola type of midfielder, our chasing power of winning the ball is vital for us and controlling the ball in midfield without fear or hesitation.
    Am impress with the training pattern because our squad have been very lazy over the years since Patrick Vieira left Arsenal and secondly we need a true leader like Xhaka because I doubt the quality of Ramsey leading us as captain but I can see the fire in Xhaka boom.

  10. Age is not on Lichsteiner’ s side either but we signed him. Yes I know he was free but who’s to say we wouldn’t get 4 years out of N’Zonzi?

  11. The Nzonzi one is strange, what about the Banega links which seemed to have something about them. We started with Nzonzi even before Emery was boss, this one goes way back, then seemed more so after Emery arrived with his Seville links and working with the player for a season. Then we get Torriera or will get him, go after Banega who turns us down, but then back to Nzonzi who is not similar to Banega. Surely we didn’t want two Seville CM players. It’s a strange one. Maybe there is someone at Arsenal pushing this Nzonzi thing because the fans have wanted some brute mentality added ever since Vieira. I’d take Nzonzi for his fighting ability but would expect more added to CM still. So I don’t like what Ornstein has said, Gazidas spoke like there was much more to come in this window and we still need an injection of quality added to that CM position.

  12. O. T…. Welbeck is the only Arsenal player left at the World Cup. How times have changed. There was a time when Arsenal had the most. Pliz Emery be our Moses

    1. Wenger was our Moses. Thing is he led us out but had broken sooo many implicit laws that he was never meant to win the league. Emery will turn arsenal into a fierce force and I think the league knows that.

  13. I believe xhaka will come good especially with the right partnership and that we have in Torreira. He was our best midfielder last season and I can’t afford to miss those long range. Nzonzi is a luxury we don’t need. Emery should just get us Douglas Costa

  14. I will prefer we add this Nigeria guy in the Leicester midfield. about the best defensive midfielder in premier league last season

  15. Both BBC and Sky could in fact be right.
    As the Torreira deal is not 100% done, it may be the case, that there is also a dialogue with Sevilla for N’zonzi, which could be a plan B) in case the Torreira deal falls through.

    1. That’s very astute, one of those things you realize that everyone should have realized.

  16. Why do people do this every close season, all these will he or won’t he rumours are so pathetic. However much these people are supposed to be ‘ in the know ‘ it’s not worth reading their columns because they only write them to get you to read their paper or they are click bait. Everybody just chill out and wait for a signing to be officilly announced on the website.

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