Arsenal have been strongly-linked with moves to sign one or both of Houssem Aouar and Thomas Partey this summer, but both deals now look in jeopardy.
The two sagas have run on for months now, and with until Monday evening to get a deal done, we were expected to at least sign one of the two above midfielders to bolster our options.
For months, reports have claimed that players were to be offloaded prior to making the big midfield signing we have craved, and just on the cusp of moving Lucas Torreira on, we now face the prospect of falling behind in the race for our targets.
The DailyStar claims that Chelsea are now looking at Thomas Partey as an alternative to Declan Rice, with West Ham so far having held strong in their attempts to keep him.
L’Equipe als claim that Real Madrid have made contact over a deal to sign Aouar from Lyon, and we could well suffer for our delayed dealings.
If Arsenal have been chasing the duo for months, it will be the club’s fault for failing to get the deals over the line earlier in the window.
If a midfielder has been the priority all summer, then the club should have done so, and not sat on their thumbs and allowed this debacle to run into the eleventh hour, when it was always going to become more difficult to land targets due to time running out.
With the talent in Aouar and Partey, it was naive of Arsenal to think that they could have had a free shot at either, and their lax attempt to bring them in now looks to have shot themselves in the boot…
If we miss out on both, and end up signing a player that we all have to go on YouTube to find out about over the coming days, I will be thoroughly disappointed and frustrated with how Arsenal have allowed this to happen.
Have we made a schoolboy error here or can we resurrect our mistake by moving with more urgency over the coming days?
Patrick
