Lucas Torreira’s loan move to Atletico Madrid hasn’t gone as well as the midfielder or Arsenal will have hoped. So far he’s had 257 minutes in La Liga, 32 in the Champions League, and a further 180 in the Copa del Rey.
Approaching the January transfer window there were endless claims from Italy of Torreira swapping Atletico for a Serie A side this month, and those claims have continued throughout the market.
Earlier this month, Arsenal technical director Edu Gaspar suggested the club were ready to help the Uruguayan get a move elsewhere if he desired: “The situation is very simple. Arsenal are concerned about Torreira, his happiness, that he plays and that he’s well. We want to know about him, how he feels and, later, of course, know what Atletico think,” he told AS.
“For us, Lucas and his happiness is the most important thing. If everyone is happy, we will continue like this, if Lucas is not well, we will seek a change because there are many teams that are calling me to ask about the player’s situation.”
Confidence built in Italy that he could be off to Serie A, with Fiorentina the club most recently pushed forward. However, Atletico’s stance was largely ignored.
The Spanish media had reported multiple times that Diego Simeone didn’t want the player to leave, concerned about potential injuries and Covid-19 isolations in the coming months. Atletico would have to get a replacement in and that would have been tricky this month.
La Nazione, a newspaper to Fiorentina, finally accept that. They explain Atletico have put their foot down and are unwilling to end the loan early, therefore La Viola are now looking towards the summer window.
