Fabrizio Romano denies that AS Monaco are in talks to take Lucas Torreira on loan for the rest of the season.

Fabrizio Romano claims AS Monaco are not negotiating with Atletico Madrid and Arsenal for Lucas Torreira, as things stand.

Sky Sports initially reported that AS Monaco are interested in signing Lucas Torreira this month. They claimed Monaco were in talks with Arsenal over the possibility, but it would require the cooperation of Torreira’s current loan club Atletico Madrid.

Speaking in his press conference, Mikel Arteta said: “We have been talking to Lucas, Edu has been very close to the situation.

“He hasn’t been playing as many minutes as he would like, as we would like, but to be fair the team is doing so well in Spain and it is understandable they don’t change the team so much.

“We just want to be right behind Lucas, protect him, help him make the right decisions for the future, so let’s see what happens. But we are monitoring the situation very closely.

“At the moment he’s going to stay at Atletico, that’s my belief and I don’t know if that is going to change in the next two or three days.”

Reports from Italy previously suggested Monaco might actually try to bring Torreira in permanently this month. They were apparently offering a three-year deal, making positive contact with both the player and Arsenal.

However, Romano’s comments suggest the rumours may be wide of the mark.

We’re running out of time to get a complicated deal like that done anyway. Recalling him from loan and loaning him out again is hard enough without throwing in permanent transfer fee negotiations and Torreira’s own individual long-term contract negotiations.

Arsenal don’t particularly need to sell right now, as they don’t seem to be pushing for any permanent signings in the current window.

A loan somewhere the midfielder would actually play would be better, but as Arteta suggests, Torreira staying with Atletico is still the expectation at this stage.

Regardless of what the player wants, it seems they want him around as a squad option, and they can simply refuse to return him.