Arsenal’s most significant signing of the summer, Lucas Torreira, could have slipped from our grasp if his agent had had his way, as he wanted his client to join Napoli rather than move to the Emirates. Torreira’s agent Pablo Bentacur said: “It’s a pity, I’m sorry Ancelotti wasn’t there at the start of the negotiation.
“He’d have been a great help for Torreira, he has tremendous international experience.
“But then Lucas called me and he confirmed to me that negotiations with Arsenal were too advanced for any second thoughts.
“If Arsenal had collapsed then Napoli would have been perfect.
“In the end, the Gunners satisfied our demands and they even were willing to pay €5million more than his release clause.”
Despite failing to get Torreira to move to Napoli, he says that Lucas is settling in nicely in London. “The Premier League? He is adapting well to the league and he is happy to be here with Arsenal.”
We are also happy that he is here as well. Once he has settled completely and got his fitness up to play the whole 90 minutes he is going to very integral to our successful season….
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Torreira’s close control looks good and I hope he can make fast impact like Guendouzi
He doesn’t seem to be a quick player, but he seems to have high stamina and high work rate
And he also seems to have a good vision,like the pass he made to auba immediately he came on against city and his pass to bellerin for arsenal third. goal,I hope he continues like that,not just do side way passes and calls it creating chances like our best player
I don’t believe the agent, Torreira was set on joining Arsenal. Unfortunately for the agent Arsenal do not ingratiate themselves with agents, by paying extra money to them.
Obviously Napoli may not have the same standards. The agents are always looking to the next deal, they will say anything to keep there players in the public eye.
It is well documented, Terreira salary is more than he expected !
Also Torreria’s father said Lucas gave his word to Arsenal about joining, and they were happy with the contract, other rumors were false
Personally I enjoyed reading that his word actually meant something. Great start to his Arsenal career, long may it last! His word and his playing days both!
Durand, as you point out obviously a family who believe in ethical behaviour and to whom integrity is important.?
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for many player agents, or players for that matter.
What I liked about this deal was that the player was identified early as a “must get” and we got the transfer over the line.How many times over the years have we fallen short with an offer because of penny pinching?If we paid over the top on a priority target then all credit to the Club.Napoli are like most Italian clubs and have very little money anyway.So if by paying over the odds gave us the azdvantage in signing Torreira then its a welcome change.
Also I would add credit to Torreira for not having his Agent dictate who he signs for.I cannot believe his wages would have been more if he stayed in Italy but the fact he seemed to want to play for us says a lot about the player.The easier option for him was to stay in Italy but he has come to North London instead.Good on you my son.Now FFS put him in the team
I am appalled and amazed that even now the dreadful Xhaka has still started games while Torreira is on bench. Were I in charge , Xhaka would be as far away from Arsenal as it is possible to be on this Earth. We WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF JUST BURNING HIS £35 MILL FEE, as it would have prevented him ever “playing” for us. Torreira is clearly match sharp enough now to start games. What ANYONE sees in Xhaka is a complete mystery to me.
Apologies for missing your earlier post JF.I have replied on the Maureen Article as ot was such a good point you made.
Also mate have you made it back to the Emirates yet this season after your self imposed exile?I hope you have and are back amongst the fans as you should be
End of the day we competed with Napoli a club that was in a state of turmoil with their whole manger saga with Chelsea and are not on our level anyway. We didn’t go after the more expensive Fred/Fabinho/Jorginho which 4 out our 5 rivals did in the same position. The idea that we are not penny pinching is so obviously false. See Leno vs Allison/Kepa etc.
We also didn’t pay over the odds to gain an advantage, he had a min release clause that anyone could activate at any time. We paid over the odds so it could be spread over a number of years and come out of future budgets because we couldn’t afford him within this years budget. That is not a welcome change it’s actually quite worrying. We could of saved 5 mil but the board are clearly imposing strict limits on spending, the 50 mil reported limit was proven real.
Nothing has changed in our transfer policy at all. Doesn’t mean I am not hopeful for Torreira but it’s obvious we had no serious competition for him because our rivals set their sights higher. Everyone knew who he was and what his release clause was. The irony that Napoli were only competing with us because Jorginho was off to Chelsea or City should not be lost on people.
The Coutinho money bought Liv that goalkeeper and VVD. Champions league money bought them Fabinho, and they maybe still had some Suarez money to boot. Those two they sold gave liv the leg up they needed at a time when they were making similar money to us but we were getting CL cash. They done well to turn it around but all the upheaval at AFC made it easier than it would’ve been or should’ve been. Tott have done it by selling smart too but not in same sense as Liv, all of Tott’s work has been done on young players and finding an odd experienced good one now and then. You’d have to say Liv were luckier than Tott, there is no way they could foresee how much money those players could bring in. We’re always just as fair with sale prices as we are at coming up with a value for our targets. We’re where Liv where when we were a stone wall top four side, and they are obv in the seat we sat in ..but they look like they have a shout at beating our highest second place finish in this latest era. We had the advantage of having somewhere from, a little – allot more spend, than everyone bar the three dijks. So before you start claiming Arsenal are a small minded club just look at our rivals to prove it, first remember, how long and how cute they had to be to turn the tables on us, and esp remember how our fan base sort of played into the timing of it all. Also ..they haven’t won anything yet, another thing to recall.
Angus, Arsenal identified Torreira and his performance in the World Cup for Uruguay justified our selection. If Arsenal had not gone in early there would have bern plenty of interest.
All I want to see is for Torreira to start games, as he is the Kante style midfielder Arsenal has been craving.
Can you explain how Napoli are not on our level ! They have come 2nd twice in a row in their league and competed in the champions league in recent years and now have ancelotti as their manager ?
I thought it was all going to fall through at the last minute, so was buzzing when he was announced! I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from him so far, so it’s about time he started for us
I was amazed when he came on the pitch on Saturday at how tiny he is! Great things come in small packages so they say!
Sue, I agree to disagree! Great things also come in BIG packages – depends where it is located!!
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I think Torreira and Guendouzi were the stand out signings of the summer.
I don’t think Emery thought Guendouzi would make an immediate impact but with Wilshere gone and Xhaka, Ramsey, Eleny are not good enough and Guendouzi is more consistent. He is hard working, always running.
Torreira and Guendouzi are defensive midfielders and we need a top quality box to box player like we had with Cazorla, Rosicky and Viera. Ramsey is decent but we need an upgrade eventually
Xhaka keeps letting me down. Maybe it’s my fault because I know how much we paid for him (£35 million) so I put him with higher standards. Maybe I should pretend we got him at £5 mil and I will appreciate him more.
Before Elneny joined us he had a reputation for scoring, maybe try him out in a box to box role he might surprise us. I’ve seen him make the odd through ball and Id be amazed asking myself where the hell did that come from. One in particular towards back end of last season. If he’s told to stop playing safe and to get at them every opportunity also encouraged to shoot more ..he might be worth a look.
We haven’t seen much of Lichtsteiner yet and I do not understand why. He is experienced, a serial winner and a leader which Arsenal is in desparate need of.
He could be the best signing of all, if given the oportunity.
I couldn’t agree more, the man’s a different level to the guys we’re used to.
OT- Looks like Emery is cracking down on fitness levels of this team based on this article:
“However, Emery has introduced strict weighing sessions, body fat measurements and other scientific processes to monitor fitness levels and cracked down even more over nutrition with juices – which contain a lot of sugar – being replaced by plain water. Emery, his assistant Juan Carlos Carcedo and club legend Steve Bould, a holdover from Wenger’s staff, have worked closely with players as they try to impose their methods.
They have had intense individual sessions on the training pitch with players as well as talking to them privately, as has already been the case with Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey.
Emery has made it clear to Ozil that he expects more from him and faces a dilemma over whether to recall him for Arsenal’s trip to Cardiff on Sunday.”
Hope to see the benefits of this soon
Torriera’s agent wanted him to play for Ancelloti… Come on let’s face it..Ancelloti is a bigger coach than Emery…. so he feels Torriera would have been in safer hands with Ancelloti and would have improved more under him…in as much as I didn’t want Wenger…he was a big coach… His good name brought us some players we shouldn’t have gotten….. But right now Emery has to prove himself and compete and then talented big name players can play for him…as for now i believe only the good name of Arsenal as a big club can attract players for Emery and the board and maybe if the players believe in the arsenal rebuilding project……….assuming we had Allegri as our new manager I’m not sure Torriera agent would have said that….it would have being easier to attract quality players with a coach like Allegri…………if Emery needs quality players he needs to compete at the highest level and also have a sweet mouth to convince players….. Maybe he was a good toaster of the girls back in his youth days??????????
Lol. Wenger’s big name brought us players? C’mon Chiza, players go where they are paid the most. When they say it’s the coach it’s just another big, blatant and useless lie like the classic “It has always been my dream from childhood to play for club X”. Like did you really believe Mkhitaryan when he said it was his dream to join Arsenal even when he was effectively kicked out of Man utd and forced to make the move in the Alexis Sanchez swap deal? If I recall correctly, the move came with a significant salary raise of around 30k. Then again, I think I’d also say anything for an extra 30k every week. ?
Ancellotti was available for Arsenal; however the board went for Emery.
You can’t believe agents; they just want to keep their player’s names in the media.
The only valid point is that the weather is better in Napoli.
I get your point Chiza but its not Emery’s job to sweet talk players or negotiate with players, there is a whole new team handling that unlike in the Wenger days. Of course he might throw in a word or two but ultimately money talks these days, Lucas’s agent is just looking for attention.
Lol!! Quantico dream I’m with you 100% no matter you look at it money talks and all this blah blah playing for a team because of the manager is baloney, how about sterling playing for man city without wages because he fancies the manager ,firstly the managers wife will want to know what’s going on, players go where they can maximise their earning potential , how successful the club has been ,their families standard of living and depending on their age what they could expect to earn later in their career
I think his agent should keep his mouth shut. How relevant is his talk about joining Napoli when the player already joined us.
Such bigmouth agents are always a threat. We seen Anelka’s brothers didn’t we?
I think if this guy still likes to shoot his mouth off, the player should consider changing him.