



Arsenal have signed the 22 year old defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira. The Uruguayan arrives at the Emirates Stadium from Sampdoria in Serie A where he was impressively joint fifth for the most interceptions last season. He also had a head turning World Cup, helping his country reach the quarter finals and doing particularly well against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal in the Round of 16. The Gunners have been in dire need of a solid defensive midfielder since Gilberto Silva or even Patrick Vieira, so it's been refreshing to see the new coach Unai Emery addressing the weaknesses in the squad as soon as he's arrived.





Watch out Kante, here comes Lucas Torreira...





In his first official interview as an Arsenal player, Torreira told Arsenal.com he wants "to make the most of this opportunity" and that he was "really looking forward to starting this new adventure".





Gooners had been awaiting Torreira's arrival for several weeks, with most reliable journalists reporting that the deal had been agreed and the club were waiting until Torreira exited the World Cup to announce the transfer so they did not disrupt Uruguay's progress. Tweet notifications? On. Instagram post notifications? On. Yet it took hours of teasing on Tuesday before Arsenal announced it was #TimeForTorreira . You can watch the announcement video here

The greatest footballer of all time tussling with Cristiano Ronaldo





So what more does Unai Emery have to do for this to be considered a successful summer transfer window? For me it goes as follows:





1. Give Ramsey the World

Jack Wilshere has joined West Ham on a free after Arsenal failed to reach an agreement over his contract renewal, they cannot afford to repeat this mistake with Aaron Ramsey. Both midfielders joined Arsenal as youngsters (Jack was at the club since October 2001, I was just 18 months old then!) and represent the "British core" Wenger attempted to build over the last decade. I thought Ramsey had a good season last year and has the potential to really flourish in this team. He also should be made captain- he's been at the club for so long and seems to have a good relationship with all of the squad, and now Mertesacker has retired the position is vacant.





Aaron Ramsey's flick goal against CSKA Moscow in the Europa League

was voted as the best Arsenal goal of the season by Gooners





If it convinces him, we should also offer him a contract worth a similar amount of money to Ozil's, as he is surely one of the top 3 players at the club. The Wenger regime and transfer policy failed when it came to situations like this, Sanchez ran down his contract and held the club at ransom, which definitely negatively affected the team's performance up until January when he left. Unai Emery cannot afford that sort of uncertainty going into his first season in charge, he needs to tie Ramsey down to a new deal sooner rather than later.





2. Bring in a winger or give Lucas a chance





This is more of a want than a need, but Arsenal don't really have any quality wingers. Sure, there's Iwobi and Nelson, however they are options for the future (and Iwobi was...questionable last season). As for Welbeck and Campbell, I'm not sure they are good enough to either bring off the bench or replace one of Mkhitaryan or Ozil should they pick up an injury. Think of how strong our attack would be with a player like Martial, Dembele or Lozano to bring off the bench! Obviously we do not have the funds for such a huge transfer at the moment, but what if we sold some of our less necessary players like Ospina and Campbell? You're looking at up to an extra £20 million just from that.

Anthony Martial reportedly wants to leave Man Utd this summer,

would you take him at Arsenal?

Now, I still think Lucas Perez was very unfairly treated by Wenger and should be given a chance to prove himself. Who remembers when he scored that hat-trick in the Champions League against FC Basel? It's another option should we choose not to splash the cash.





3. Discover our strongest XI





Arsenal have a very difficult start to the Premier League, facing the 2017/18 Champions, Man City, at home, then heading to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea. But here's where the Gunners have an advantage- the majority of our squad should be fit by then, whereas a lot of City's players are still playing in the World Cup. The only Arsenal player still in Russia is...Danny Welbeck! Germany's early group stage exit means Mesut Ozil should be ready by around the middle of pre-season. This is a big contrast to previous years where Arsenal have had to put out a makeshift team on the first day of the season and gives Unai Emery a massive chance to find which players work well together. It's debatable who should start, especially in midfield. Should Xhaka be dropped for a Torreira-Ramsey partnership with a LMAO attack, or should we have all three midfielders starting and drop one of Mkhitaryan and Lacazette? It's a difficult decision, but whatever Unai decides to do I will stand by him. This transition is going to take time and success will not be instantaneous.