As things stand, Lucas Torreira is under contract at Arsenal for the 2022/23 season. But that could change if a club from either Spain or Italy meet his €15m (£12.9m) asking price before the summer transfer window closes.
Following a productive campaign on loan with Fiorentina, where the midfielder made a total of 35 appearances across all competitions - scoring five goals in the process - it looked as if he had done enough to earn a permanent transfer as the Serie A side were in negotiations with the Gunners to activate their option to buy.
However, as revealed by Torreira himself earlier in the month, Fiorentina have decided against taking up the option to turn his deal into a permanent one and the Uruguay international even went as far to suggest that his move was prevented by "those acting in a bad way".
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Now, the 26-year-old is a lot more relaxed about missing out on a long-term move to Artemio Franchi Stadium as he has confirmed he has left his agent in charge of sorting out his future whilst he's on holiday: "We are having conversations with many teams, but my representative is in charge of that, today I am enjoying my vacation," he said in an interview with El Telegrafo.
"It was a long year with a lot of competition, and it was exhausting; I want to relax with my family. What I wanted was to stay at Fiorentina, but it didn’t happen for various reasons, so we’ll look for a new direction."
But what will be Torreira's next move? Well, what is for certain is that he has no intention of staying with Arsenal after being informed that he is up for sale this summer and ideally he is keen on a return to Italy or Spain (where he had a loan spell with Atletico Madrid in the 2020/21 season).
"Chances? None," he said when asked about his chances of playing for the Gunners next season. "From the beginning, they told me that I didn’t have a place, so I don’t want to stay either because I suffered a lot, it cost me a lot to adapt and my idea is to go to Italy or Spain."
With that being said, one club Torreira would love to play for is Boca Juniors in Argentina. But because of his €15m (£12.9m) price-tag, he admits this particular transfer is unlikely to happen - although he's not giving up hope just yet.
"Boca is very difficult," he added. "It was difficult when my mom passed and I really wanted to go there, then I had a very good season and I have one year left on my contract with Arsenal. Any team that wants me has to buy out my contract, which today is worth approximately €15 million, so that’s why I see it as difficult (for Boca), although I never lose hope; I feel a lot of love for that club and at some point, I would like to play there."
Amid links to Lazio and Roma, they could be the teams Torreira's camp are in conversations with over a summer transfer. Having signed the midfielder for £26.5m in the summer of 2018, Arsenal would stand to make a loss of around £13.6m if one of the Serie A clubs meet their aforementioned asking price.
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