Lucas Torreira signs with Arsenal

One of the first questions I ask and conversations I have with any project team I run at my work, when we fire up a new project, is “what does “done” look like?” People say they want to do a thing, but they really don’t think about what doing that thing entails a lot of the time - they just want the thing.

In the case of a footballer’s transfer, it’s pretty easy to see what done looks like - the player signs on the dotted line, holds up the scarf, talks about boyhood dreams, etc. And now, Arsenal fans get to see what “done” looks like in the case of Uruguay’s Lucas Torreira.

We’ve been talking for weeks about how Torreira’s transfer would be done after his involvement in the World Cup came to an end. That happened on Friday, with a loss to France, and almost instantly, the Ornstein-driven “it’s happening” train left the station.

Today, that train arrived at its destination, as Torreira has officially signed his contract, kissed his badge, and so on. Arsenal’s newest player is a player they’ve needed for a while now - a defensive midfielder - and he has the added advantage of being young. At 22, if he works out, he could anchor Arsenal’s midfield for several years to come.

As Ornstein’s tweet from last week points out, this should be it for Arsenal’s first team additions before the English transfer window closes on Aug. 9; there may be some youth reinforcements, but the team as it stands right now is the team that will kick the season off on August 12 against Manchester City.

Welcome to London, Lucas.