Arsenal fans can relax now, the transfer of Lucas Torreira has more or less been confirmed.
The 22-year-old Sampdoria star has been tipped to join to Gunners for a while, but his involvement with Uruguay’s World Cup run up until the Quarter-Finals held up any kind of deal.
It did showcase the young Torreira to the world as he had an excellent World Cup especially shining in the second round against Portugal where he nullified arguably the world’s best player in Cristiano Ronaldo.
He would become Unai Emery’s fourth signing of the summer and the most exciting one.
Arsenal have so far signed Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Bernd Leno. Torreira has been reported to be Arsenal’s final first-team signing with only the signing of a youngster expected after this.
It is possible that Arsenal also trim their squad with David Ospina, Joel Campbell, Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck all tipped to leave. Also the futures of Aaron Ramsey and Shkodran Mustafi are up in the air with the latter tipped to leave while the former is yet to sign a new contract even with one year left.
Torreira in an interview basically confirming his move said: ‘I would have been very happy to be able to return to Uruguay with my teammates, but this is a fantastic opportunity [to join Arsenal] and I do not want to waste it.’
He is expected to complete a medical and be announced as an Arsenal player within the next couple of days.