Arsenal are close to seeing Lucas Torreira complete his long-awaited departure from the club, finally drawing to a close an error-strewn £129million spending spree.
Torreira has no place in Mikel Arteta 's plans, instead spending the past two seasons out on loan at Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina. It was expected that he would return to the Serie A club permanently, but that deal collapsed earlier this summer over the fee.
Ever since, the Gunners have been trying to find a new home for the Uruguayan. Arteta needs to cut down his now bloated squad, following a busy summer window that has seen five new players arrive at the Emirates Stadium, with at least one more signing expected.
It appears that they have now finally found a club willing to take Torreira off their hands. Reports from Italy claim that Galatasaray are now in pole position to sign the 26-year-old and have an agreement over a three-year contract.
The Turkish Super Lig giants will pay £5.8million for the midfielder, with Arsenal ready to accept that bid. It means the Premier League side will make a £20.2m loss on Torreira, having bought him for £26m from Sampdoria in 2018.
Torreira is also one of the last players who was signed by former transfer chief Sven Mislintat to leave the Gunners. Mislintant joined Arsenal in December 2017, signing eight players during his ill-fated spell supervising their business.
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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dinos Mavropanos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Matteo Guendouzi, Torreira and Stephan Lichtsteiner all joined during that time. The Gunners spent a mammoth £129m to sign that group, with Arsenal recouping just £26.5m from selling them.
Leno and Torreira are the last of that group to leave the Emirates Stadium, with the former set to join Fulham. Despite none of his signings still being with Arteta's squad, Mislintat has frequently defended his moves.
“'He only knows Dortmund players'. That was the take, I know. But that can’t influence your decisions. You have to free yourself from opinions and politics as best as possible and be convinced that you’re doing the right thing," he told The Athletic in March 2021.
"You can get it wrong. But those have to be honest mistakes, not mistakes you make because you felt you needed to make certain moves for appearances’ sake. Let’s start with Auba. No need to talk about it. His statistics since he joined the Premier League stands for itself.
"To be quite clear: I don’t feel ashamed of any of those transfers, on the contrary, I will always defend these guys. Not because they were my players but because they were Arsenal players and capable ones. They turned up.
"The team went unbeaten in 22 games in all competitions, made it to the Europa League final and finished fifth with 70 points. You can say that’s not good enough. But many teams would love to finish fifth now. I felt that we were on the right track and I would have enjoyed the opportunity to develop further at Arsenal."
