‘Very complicated’: Agent claims Arsenal man rejected three Serie A clubs

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Lucas Torreira turned down the chance to join Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina before leaving Arsenal for Atletico Madrid on deadline day, agent Pablo Bentancur has told Sport 890, translated by Sports Finding.

During a hectic end to the longest transfer window in history, a pair of top-quality midfield talents swapped clubs.

An hour or two before Arsenal triggered the £51 million release clause in Thomas Partey’s contract, Uruguayan enforcer Torreira was putting pen to paper on a season-long loan deal at the Wanda Metropolitano.

And, given this tenacious terrier is the modern-day equivalent of Diego Simeone himself, you can see why Torreira would jump at the chance to star under a coach who, in his own words, played “with a knife between the teeth”.

“Lucas’s transfer was very complicated. (Arsenal) were doing the Thomas thing and, when the two clubs have a different objective, it is difficult to be in the middle of the two operations,” Bentancur explains.

“We had other (agreements) with teams such as Roma, Fiorentina or Lazio, who will play Champions League football (this season), but Lucas was blunt. He told us his goal was Atleti.

“He closed all the other possibilities. Luckily, in the end, (the move to Spain) was done.”

Bentancur adds that Torreira has joined the 2014 La Liga champions on what our continental cousins refer to as a ‘dry loan’ – meaning there’s no option or obligation-to-buy clause in his contract.

However, if Partey lives up to his ‘new Vieira’ tag at Arsenal, it’s difficult to imagine Torreira returning to the Emirates next summer.