Lucas Torreira (24 years old) arrived at Atlético on the last market day. The Uruguayan had reached an agreement several days before with the rojiblanco club and there was also an understanding of the mattresses with Arsenal so that he could be transferred. However, The operation was waiting for an Atlético player to come out, which was finally Thomas, precisely to the ‘gunners’. The rojiblancos confirmed the arrival of the charrúa on loan for this campaign and It was speculated that they had a purchase option of about 20 million euros that they could exercise at the end of the course. However, none of the clubs ratified it in their official statements.
The player's agent, Pablo Bentancur, spoke today on the program ‘100% Sport’ from the Uruguayan radio station Sport 890 and they asked him about the arrival of his client to Simeone's team. Bentancur stated that “Lucas's operation was very complicated. He was 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. We had other agreed teams such as Roma, Fiorentina or Lazio, which play Champions, but Lucas was blunt. He told us that his goal was Atleti and that we get it for him and we work for the players. He closed all the possibilities, is Atlético yes or yes. Luckily in the end it was done. You are going to loan one year without a purchase option and the price is not defined, it will depend on your performance. He has no option to buy because Arsenal had to pay the clause for Thomas. “
Therefore, it denies the possibility that the rojiblancos can secure the player's services definitively when the transfer year ends by disbursing an amount already agreed. That implies that, if Torreira meets the expectations that he has generated (he is a player very liked by Simeone and has several supporters within the squad, such as Luis Suárez and Giménez) and Atlético wants to take over their services, they will have to negotiate with Arsenal to reach an agreement on the price to pay.
The Uruguayan will have the difficult mission of supply Thomas Partey, who decided to leave the club for London, leaving an important gap in the center of the Cholo field, which the Uruguayan will have to cover. Your role in the team has changed as in principle it was going to be a complement for the Ghanaian and now he will have to relieve him in the pivot position in the tactical system of the mattresses.