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Chief confirms star has sealed £26.5m transfer as Arsenal agree third signing

By on June 20, 2018

According to Football London, Sampdoria president Massimo Ferrero has confirmed Lucas Torreira has left the club in a £26.5m deal as Arsenal look set to announce our third summer signing.

Unai Emery has already strengthened in defence with the signing of Stephan Lichtsteiner and the imminent arrival of Sokratis Papastathopoulos while goalkeeper Bernd Leno arrived from Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.

However, we desperately need to revamp our midfield options as Santi Cazorla has left to re-join Villarreal while Jack Wilshere announced last night that he’ll be leaving when his contract expires at the end of the month.

Emery is understood to want a defensive midfielder and Torreira has been strongly linked in recent weeks with widespread reports suggesting we’ve been in talks with Sampdoria over a deal to sign the South American star.

Gazzetta dello Sport claimed last week that a deal was close after Torreira had agreed terms over a five-year contract with Arsenal and we were ready to pay Sampdoria £26.5m for the midfielder’s signature.

It appears those reports were accurate as Sampdoria’s own president, Massimo Ferrero, has let slip on Italian TV that Torreira has left the club in a £26.5m [€30m] deal so it looks like all that remains is for the transfer to be officially announced.

Ferrero is quoted by Football London as saying:

“Sampdoria do not sell unless there are excellent offers. We do not look for buyers. We have natural talents whose values increase exponentially.

“Generally, we do not make changed. Sampdoria is a stepping stone. It’s a family-run club and that allows players to grow up. It’s normal they have aspirations to play for big clubs, but I do not need to sell out.”

“Torreira has left for €30million. I bought him from Pescara when no one believed. We bet and we won, paying just €3million. The money that comes in is used to keep the club going.”

Torreira is currently in Russia with the Uruguayan squad so we’ll probably wait until after the World Cup to confirm his signature but it looks like the move is virtually a ‘done deal’ going by Ferrero’s comments.

The 22-year-old is exactly the type of player we need as although he’s only 5ft 6in tall, he’s a proper defensive midfielder who protects the defence and has superb tackling and interception stats.

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He also has a good passing range and is known to have a solid long-range shot so I think Torreira will be an excellent addition to the squad once this proposed deal is formally announced.