From Inter temptations to North London Derby hero: Torreira is now Arsenal's leader
- Fabrizio Romano. Translated by Nikita Fesyukov
The right man in the right place, who cost only 30 million euros, straight into the coffers of Sampdoria. A masterpiece for everyone. "Give him a statue immediately outside the stadium," some Arsenal fans tweeted yesterday.
To think that Torreira said yes to Inter a year ago. The Nerazzurri have always been the team most interested in the Uruguayan. They moved in unsuspecting times for the midfielder, negotiating with both Sampdoria and the agent of the player.
But the problem was the resistance of Ferrero, who did not want to give a discount and wanted either 25 million (the release clause) or more money with the possibility of spreading the payment into instalments.
The president knew that Torreira would have a market during the summer and he preferred to keep the player and wait. On the other hand, Inter could not make that sort of investment in January, a question of Financial Fair Play and Arsenal took advantage, even surpassing Napoli, who were negotiating for the player since February this year.
But Torreira chose to move to Arsenal and has become a silent leader of Emery's team. The small, but great Torreira has now also conquered London after doing so in Serie A and the city of Genoa.