Arsenal’s Lucas Torreira completed his medical days ago ahead of his move to Atletico Madrid on loan, but the delay in completing tells us more about their expectations this month.
The Uruguayan is set to join the club on a season-long loan today on Deadline Day, but that now looks in doubt, despite having fallen down the pecking order in North London.
Arsenal have been strongly linked with a deal to sign Thomas Partey from Atletico, but that now appears to be off.
Torreira’s awaiting confirmation that his move to the Wanda Metropolitan has been completed, but that deal is said to stem on the departure of one of Atleti’s other players, which sounds far away at present.
If Arsenal were in with a chance of signing Thomas Partey today, you would think that the two medicals could have taken place at the same time, without need to add further delay to proceedings, but the fact that Torreira is sat waiting in the Spanish capital proves otherwise.
Spanish football expert Semra Hunter told Sky Sports (via Football.London)”That is on standby at the moment. He is in Madrid, he had his medical a couple of days ago. You could see him wearing his mask with the Atletico Madrid badge on it.
“He’s all ready to go – he passed that with flying colours. The problem now is that Atletico Madrid have to offload somebody at the very least.
“And it is looking like it is going to be either Thomas Lemar or Hector Herrera, or a combination of the two. The problem is that neither of them has a transfer deal in the works at this particular moment in time.”
Torreira’s move could well complete after the departure of Partey to another club, with Chelsea also recently linked, but the comments above on Los Rojiblancos doesn’t sound like any outoings are close.
Am I alone in believing the Torreira situation is proof that Partey will not be in North London today to complete a deal? Could Atletico still be expecting to lose Partey with Torreira lined up as his replacement?
Patrick