Why Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs failed in Pau Torres summer transfer
Karan Tejwani
- 26 Sept 2022 09:55 BST
- 3 min read
London trio Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham were all interested in improving their defence this year and kept an eye on the progress of Villarreal man Pau Torres.
Torres has impressed in La Liga over the years and has been of interest to some of Europe’s top clubs, including Manchester United and Barcelona, but has remained at Villarreal throughout this time.
He has also been a Champions League player and become a regular in the Spanish national team squad in recent times under Luis Enrique, proving his quality.
This past year, however, there was further interest from Premier League sides, but he has ended up staying at the Spanish side, continuing in La Liga.
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Torres had Premier League interest
According to Fabrizio Romano, there was interest in Torres from Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham, but the three London clubs were put off by Villarreal’s high asking price.
The Yellow Submarine were open to selling their star defender due to their financial difficulties, but a move never materialized for him due to fee being set too high.
“Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham explored this possibility but didn’t want to spend €40-45m,” Romano said. “I think it’s a very good opportunity on the market; he has experience, quality, left footed…a very good centre-back.”
This is one of the best performance I've ever seen from Pau Torres. He literally dropped a masterclass against this Bayern super teampic.twitter.com/2riDHuPUnk
— Vintage 🥷 (@SellTheAttack) September 25, 2022
Chelsea ended up spending big on defenders anyways, bringing in the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli, Marc Cucurella from Brighton and Wesley Fofana from Leicester.
Arsenal didn’t sign a defender, choosing to remain with their current options while Tottenham made Cristian Romero’s loan move from Atalanta a permanent one.
There will still be interest in Torres in the future, especially after the World Cup, should he continue playing in the first-team under Enrique and impress at football’s showpiece event.
Barcelona were one of the clubs linked to him and could still want a defender in the coming months, keeping that door open as well.
