Lucas Torreira close to Galatasaray move

At long last, it seems as if Arsenal have found a buyer for Lucas Torreira. Per multiple reports, Galatasaray have submitted a bid worth €5.5M plus €1.5M in bonuses for the Uruguayan midfielder. Reports out of Turkey say that Arsenal have accepted the bid and that the Turkish club are now negotiating personal terms with Torreira.

The sale, should the reports be accurate, would come as a relief because it would end Lucas Torreira's time at Arsenal. Not that his tenure has been particularly problematic, but he's a player on the books who hasn't contributed to the first team in two years. It's not a lot of money coming back the other way, but a fee is better than cancelling a contract and clearing wages is something, at least.

He simply did not work out at Arsenal. Whether it was playing style, personal reasons, something else, or a combination of factors, it just wasn't a good fit. That happens. There's not much more to be done beyond move the player on and learn from your mistakes.

Torreira is the final Sven Mislintat signing remaining at the club. The club spent £129M to bring in 8 players under his watch (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dinos Mavropanos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Stephan Lichtsteiner) and will recoup £26.5M from the sales. (H/T Ben Browning for pulling the numbers together)

Only Mavropanos and Guendouzi returned a profit, and in both cases, the consensus was that Arsenal sold both below the player's market value. Guendouzi because Mikel Arteta wanted him gone. It's not clear why the club moved on from Mavropanos, probably because he did not fit what Arteta wanted from his centerbacks.

None of that is meant to disparage Mislintat or any of the players, mind you. His brief tenure in North London was a difficult, transitional time in the front office, with power struggles and new faces. As with Torreira, it just didn't work out.

This Torreira move (again, should it go through) will be a welcome period on that tumultuous, transitional time that saw a noticeable dip in the quality and results at Arsenal. It's fully Mikel Arteta and Edu's team and club now. They've got their players. Time to see what they can do.