Barcelona star breaks silence on Arsenal links after friendly
Tom Weber
- Updated: 28 Jul 2023 07:03 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona's Ferran Torres has given his thoughts on the speculation surrounding his future.
The Spaniard has failed to live up to the hype since arriving in January 2022 from Manchester City for a whopping €55 million. Rarely utilised as a starter by Xavi last term, the expectation heading into this transfer window was that the 23-year-old would depart the Camp Nou.
Indeed, free-spending Aston Villa have been repeatedly linked with a move for the winger, while the name of Arsenal has also cropped up at times. After the arrivals of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, he wouldn't have been the first City player to be signed by the Gunners under the Arteta regime, though the Arsenal boss has never actually worked with his compatriot before - he left City before Torres joined.
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Barcelona would certainly be open to offloading him as their financial situation still leaves a lot to be desired, but talk of a potential exit has died down of late. Torres is said to be unwilling to leave and he wants to fight for his place. Speaking to the press in the USA, the 23-year-old confirmed his desire to stay with the Catalans.
What did Torres say?
Asked about his future after scoring in Barcelona's 5-3 pre-season defeat to Arsenal in California, Torres said: "The names on Barca's transfer list are placed by the journalists."
"I have a contract here," he continued, "I’m going to stay. I don’t care what is said about me. I’m going to work like anyone else. I am the first self-critic, it was not a good season last year but I learned a lot. These ups and downs have helped me to be stronger now."
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Even prior to these comments it would have been surprising to see the Spaniard back in the Premier League. Arsenal's supposed interest never seemed to be particularly well-founded, while Aston Villa have already splashed the cash on fellow winger Moussa Diaby and defender Pau Torres.
