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Fee Agreed: Arsenal strike deal to sign Serie A enforcer
According to reports in Italy via the Daily Star, Arsenal have now agreed a fee with Sampdoria worth £26.5m to sign Lucas Torreirea as we close-in on our second major signing of the summer.
Unai Emery has already snapped-up Stephan Lichtsteiner on a free from Juventus with the right-back brought-in as short-term competition for Hector Bellerin but we desperately need to sign a defensive midfielder.
We haven’t had a ‘proper’ holding midfielder for years as Granit Xhaka is more of a deep lying playmaker while Aaron Ramsey is a box-to-box who loves to bomb forward and support attacks which can leave our back four exposed.
So we need a player to sit in front of the defence and break up opposition attacks and Emery appears to have identified Torreira as the man he wants as widespread reports this month have claimed we’re in for the Sampdoria star.
It seems a deal is now close as the Daily Star as citing Sport Mediaset as saying Arsenal have agreed a deal worth £26.5m to sign Torreira and we’re now working on personal terms with the midfielder.
The Italian publication says Arsenal are prepared to pay over the 22-year-old’s £22m release clause as it means Sampdoria will allow us to pay the fee in several installments rather than one lump sum.
However, until the deal is over the line we could still miss out as the report says Napoli and Borussia Dortmund are also chasing Torreira’s signature so we need to hurry up and agree personal terms to get this deal wrapped-up.
The problem is we’re running out of time as Torreira has been named in the Uruguay squad for the World Cup and they kick off their tournament on Friday so you’d think the player won’t be allowed to conduct any transfer business from tomorrow onwards.
MORE: Arsenal agree defender deal
Torreira is a modern-day defensive midfielder as he covers ground quickly to make interceptions and tackles in front of the back four and is an excellent passer of the ball so he’d be a great addition if we could get this deal over the line.