Thomas Partey is Not Optimal by AI
Would you rather spend 50 million euros + big wages on a 27 year old who, while being a very quality player, won’t address your most glaring issue from last season?
Thomas Partey is not the game changer Arsenal need. Granted, he’s a very good player and would immediately improve our midfield play, but who do you then play ahead of him? Xhaka and Joe Willock?
If after sales, Arsenal have a bit in excess of 50 million euros to improve the midfield with, then spending everything on a defensive midfielder when your midfield is crying out for creativity is quite moronic.
Mikel Arteta wants to transition to a 3-man midfield next season. Xhaka is sure to play a good part of it and yet Arteta has refused to play him as the deepest midfielder last season. Dani Ceballos played that role. If Arsenal should sign Dani Ceballos (as they should), then there’s no space for Thomas Partey anymore. Or is it a Partey-Xhaka-Ceballos midfield we are gunning for? That’s poor to me. Although it might work, all it takes is a single injury to ruin the balance of it.
I don’t think we should spend 50 million on Thomas Partey when we can get both Dominik Szbozlai and Dani Ceballos for that much. If we try to improve the overall quality of the midfield rather than just one part of it (Thomas Partey), we should be much better.
I sincerely believe we have a very good coach and that we should give him the best possible tools without bankrupting the club. If the club has money and a player like Houssem Aouar or Jack Grealish can be bought in addition to Dani Ceballos, it would be a much better midfield than Thomas Partey in addition to Ceballos. We already have Xhaka who can operate in the Partey role at an acceptable level. Buying a defensive midfielder for restrictive amounts doesn’t make sense, unless another top attacking midfielder can be secured.
It is much better to get a great attacking midfielder plus Ceballos and wait till next season to sign a defensive midfielder like Thomas Partey. Our problem was creativity and with our forward lineup, it would be a big waste to not have a top midfielder feeding the likes of Aubameyang and Nicolas Pépé.
Thomas Partey can wait.
Agboola Israel
