Arsenal will be injecting fresh blood on the team roster, purportedly to arrest the struggling club's slide in the Premier League. The latest acquisition target of the North London team is said to be center-back Pau Torres, and the plan is to bring him over at the Emirates as early as January 2020.
The rising Spanish defender is part of Villarreal and making him travel to England will reportedly cost the Gunners £43 million at the minimum. To make things easier for Arsenal, the team is hoping that Torres' transfer can be arranged replicating the hiring model used with Nicolas Pepe, The Sun reported.
Pepe was recruited by Arsenal last summer and the deal was sealed with an upfront payment of £20 million to Lille.
The winger will cost the Gunners a total of £72 million but Lille had agreed to receive the balance over the next few years. Per the same report, it could be that Arsenal is working on a proposal to facilitate the transfer of Torres in the same way although it was unclear if Lille would be amenable to such an agreement.
Torres potentially coming in is seen as the immediate solution that Arsenal needs in light of the recent setbacks that plagued the team. Manager Unai Emery is obviously running out of options following the series of defeats by the club, in which too many points have been conceded.
Emery's defensive woes can be attributed chiefly on a roster that was inconsistent in the past games, according to The Daily Mail.
For instance, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis have been described as not dependable on the pitch lately while fresh hires David Luiz and Rob Holding fell short of expectations. So it seemed that Emery is banking on Torres to join Arsenal soon and he will have one less problem to worry.
However, Arsenal convincing Torres to make the jump could prove a bit harder as the club will need to compete with a fellow English team. It appeared that the exploits so far of the young Spaniard have caught the eyes of Pep Guardiola.
According to Metro, it's likely that the Gunners will be racing against Manchester City to win the attention of Torres. The spotlight now trained on the defender gained even more juice as he recently headlined for Spain and was a key factor in the 7-0 trouncing of Malta.
If ever, Torres would be joining an Arsenal that is on the brink of losing its head coach. The under-fire Emery has been dealing with mounting pressure to deliver a turnaround amid the accusations of tactical errors and poor personnel handling.
Notwithstanding, the Arsenal board has recently declared full support for the Spanish boss. The vote of confidence, however, failed to quiet the speculations that Emery's sacking is just a matter of time.
