Arsenal have perhaps been given a cause for concern over the future of Lucas Torreira after comments from the midfielder’s agent, Pablo Bentancur.
The 24-year-old joined the Gunners from Sampdoria in 2018 and has gone on to make 83 appearances for the club while featuring regularly for Mikel Arteta after his appointment in December.
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In turn, it seems as though the Uruguayan international has a key role to play at the Emirates moving forward, but there could be some concern over his future as a result of Bentancur’s latest comments.
While he doesn’t suggest that Torreira is pushing for an exit as such, he does seemingly leave the door open to a potential return to Italy, as per the desire of his client.
“Lucas had been in a bit of a bad mood over some technical differences, then he recovered,” he told Tuttomercatoweb. “Then the injury arrived, fortunately less serious than expected. Today he is completely recovered, I believe he will be a market man.
“I will have to speak to Arsenal. The player would love to return to Italy, but it must be acknowledged that Arsenal treated him very well and behaved great.”
Those aren’t exactly the most reassuring of words in terms of Torreira staying at Arsenal, although it remains to be seen if the Gunners are even willing to green light an exit this summer.
Arteta will undoubtedly hope to stamp his mark on the squad ahead of next season and with funds perhaps likely to be limited given the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, raising funds from player sales could be a key solution.
That said, the Spanish tactician will surely want to build on the quality he already has rather than sacrifice important players to merely replace them, and so time will tell if Torriera is on his way back to Italy or not.