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Arsenal news: surprise signing reportedly ‘imminent’ + Torreira’s agent drops bombshell

By on August 29, 2018

It’s been a busy news day so here I’ll bring you a mini round-up including strange reports claiming Yaya Toure is set to join Arsenal while Lucas Torreira’s agent suggests the midfielder would rather have joined Napoli.

First up and according to CalcioMercato, former Man City star Yaya Toure is set to join Arsenal on a free transfer after completing his medical with the outlet saying the move is ‘imminent’.

Toure’s agent sparked speculation over a possible move to the Emirates after tweeting on Tuesday night that the midfielder had completed a medical in London ahead of a switch to an unnamed club.

Arsenal were soon installed as the bookmakers favourites and CalcioMercato picked-up the story and appear to have ran with it after claiming today that Toure is on the verge of completing a move to north London.

The Italian outlet cite reports from England as the source of their information but there are no such reports – other than Sky Sports suggesting Arsenal were the front-runners with Sky Bet just to get gullible punters to place some bets.

The CalcioMercato story almost certainly has no foundation and further reports today suggest that Toure’s agent was just trolling and the 35-year-old is in fact off to Olympiacos, so I’d be shocked if anything came of this.

Next, and Torreira’s agent has unbelievably suggested that the Uruguayan international would have preferred to join Napoli instead of Arsenal but Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment came too late.

While the transfer wasn’t officially announced until July, Arsenal agreed a deal with Sampdoria to sign Torreira before he went to the World Cup in early June after fending off late competition from Napoli.

The 23-year-old’s agent, Pablo Bentancur, has now confirmed that they held talks with the Italians but by the time Carlo Ancelotti was appointed as Maurizio Sarri’s replacement, it was too late as the midfielder had already given his word to Arsenal.

However, Bentancur suggests Torreira may have favoured a switch to Napoli had Ancelotti’s appointment been confirmed sooner, saying it was a ‘pity’ the experienced Italian wasn’t involved in negotiations from the start.

Bentancur is quoted by ESPN as saying:

“It’s a pity, I’m sorry Ancelotti wasn’t there at the start of the negotiation. He’d have been a great help for Torreira, he has tremendous international experience. But then Lucas called me and he confirmed to me that negotiations with Arsenal were too advanced for any second thoughts. If the Arsenal deal had collapsed then Napoli would have been perfect.”

Nice. So Torreira hasn’t even made his full debut for Arsenal yet and his agent is already suggesting the player would have been better off elsewhere. He probably didn’t mean anything sinister but he should probably just have kept his mouth shut.