For a long time this season, it seems that Lucas Torreira would be staying at Fiorentina beyond his loan from Arsenal.
The player was unwanted by Mikel Arteta at the club, meaning the move to the Serie A side was arranged, where he excelled.
A €15m option to buy was included in the deal, as Arsenal hoped this would be the last time they would have to deal with the Uruguayan, and everything pointed towards Fiorentina triggering it.
In the end, however, they didn’t, and Torreira is now back with the Gunners, needing to find himself a new club after making it clear neither party wanted the relationship to continue.
Since then, there has been the odd rumour, but nothing overly concrete to suggest an Arsenal exit is close.
In the meantime, Fiorentina have moved on, but the subject of Torreira reappeared on Tuesday when, during a press conference, Daniele Pradè, Fiorentina’s director of football, was asked about what really happened behind the scenes.
He explained, relayed by Firenze Viola: “Let’s start from the beginning, with the arrival of Lucas, who gave us so much from a technical point of view and should be thanked. I called him in the first few days if April to discuss the situation. To make the loan with the option to buy, we had to put a figure that allowed Arsenal to not suffer a loss.
“In April, we called them to pay over five years. For us, to buy a player born in 1996 in an operation of more than €30m, it would mean making him a symbol. We offer him €2.5m/year for five years, a profitable proposition. We saw a long road with Lucas, but there was a sharp closure from the agent’s end and something changed in the relationship between us.
“Then, in the last month and a half, Amrabat did great and gave us guarantees, making it clear to our manager that we could use him in the role. At that point, it became a technical choice, shared by the manager. We asked ourselves Amrabat or Torreira? And we all chose the first one together.”
