Lucas Torreira says his summer was full of anxiety over his future, as he wished to leave Arsenal for Fiorentina before ending up at Galatasaray.

Following a strong season with Fiorentina in Italy, Lucas Torreira was widely expected to join the club permanently at the end of the campaign.

That was what the player wanted, it was what the fans wanted, and you could argue it was also what Arsenal wanted, having agreed to an option-to-buy in his loan deal with the Serie A side as Mikel Arteta moved forward with other midfield options.

Yet Fiorentina decided not to activate their option to buy, attempting to slash the price in half. This eventually led to a breakdown in negotiations with Arsenal.

Torreira remained desperate to return to Florence, but as the summer went on, he looked at other options before eventually joining Galatasaray for £5m plus add-ons.

Reflecting on the summer, Torreira explained that it was an uncertain time for him, and he ended up taking advice from Uruguay teammate and Galatasaray stalwart Fernando Muslera.

“There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety, nervousness too,” Torreira said.

“It is true that I did have many options and in fact, after the great season I had at Fiorentina, my wish was to be able to stay in Italy, but as we all know in football everything can change very quickly.

“The call came from Galatasaray and the help also from Fernando Muslera, who was very important to me when making this decision because it was quite important to think about the future, knowing what was coming to me.

“I also knew little about the country, I came to a totally different league than Italian football, but I took on this challenge.”

Part of the anxiety probably stemmed from the World Cup this winter. Torreira is a regular fixture in the Uruguay side, but a few months without consistent matches could have seen him drop out of the team, or worse, the squad.

Instead, Torreira has played extremely regularly for Galatasaray, making his debut as a substitute on August 13th before going on a run of 11 consecutive Super Lig starts.

The result is that he’s received a call-up from Uruguay for the World Cup this month. He’ll now hope to impress in the competition that helped drive his move to Arsenal in the first place, four-and-a-half years ago.