Martin Keown is confused about the fact that Arsenal’s managers haven’t exactly warmed to Lucas Torreira.
The Uruguayan joined the Gunners in 2018 after shining for his country at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Gunners saw off competition from several teams to land him and he was a key player for the club in his first campaign.
He, however, lost his place in the team in his second campaign and the sacking of Unai Emery still didn’t make things better for him.
Mikel Arteta has not fancied him in his team and the Spaniard is looking to offload him in this transfer window.
However, Keown believes that the 24-year-old is a fine player and he is baffled that Emery and Arteta have never seen the value that he can bring to the Arsenal team.
Keown told Talksport: “It’s hard to put your finger on it because when I saw him first break into the team, that tenacity and work rate and quality, technique on the ball, I thought he was going to be the answer.”
He added: “I don’t know if there are any underlying problems with the player, but he certainly looked to me to be the answer. It looks like he might just be a paperweight really in Partey in coming in the other direction.
“But I do feel he is a good player, but for some reason Arteta, not just Arteta to be honest, Emery was the same, did not really turn to him. A massive mystery. I thought it would be a loss to the team, but you can’t argue with Arteta because he is getting results.”
Keown makes a couple of good points but no matter what opinions people have, if Arteta does not consider him a part of his plans for whatever reason, then that is it, time to move on.
