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Decision time – Aouar or Partey? Who would you choose?

Aouar Or Partey? by Dan Smith

There were times this summer Gooners said we get both, I even read some say as well as Coutinho, but it does look like it’s a case of choosing between Aouar and Partey.

That Arteta is a fan of both highlights how he realises more than one area in midfield needs strengthening but our manager might have to now pick which is a priority, having creativity or physicality?

Arsenal were hoping by now to have brought in more funds, but wages players are on is proving an obstacle. In the middle of a Pandemic clubs are unwilling to pay huge salaries as well as transfer fees. It’s not just Ozil and Guendouzi. The likes of Kolasinac, Torreira and Sokratis have made it clear they won’t reduce their wages to leave (nor should they).

It would be great if Stan Kroenke put his hand in his own pocket to get both based on we might have someone special in the dugout.

The owner still has till October 5th to do that, but reality says if he’s never spent one pound of his own money on the club, he’s not suddenly going to start now when the UK is on the verge of a second lockdown.

So who would you pick?

Both are realistic targets.

Atletico Madrid are adamant we have to trigger a buyout clause but that’s a doable 45 million.
Lyon’s Jean – Michel Aulas is the French version of Daniel Levy. He will haggle over every last penny but will eventually sell.

So there’s an element of poker going on, hence why this might not be resolved till the end of the window.

It’s in the Gunners interest to have clubs believing they are skint because deep down, the likes of Lyon need money and are more likely to lower the price than miss out on a pay day.

Remember Ligue 1 was voided in March, meaning they have had even longer with zero match day revenue and they didn’t qualify for the Champions League.

You sense Atletico mean what they say?

They are affording Luis Suarez’s salary so they are not desperate to sell.

If I had to pick, I do feel we lack creativity badly (especially if Ozil is being frozen out).

Too many games I walk away from wishing we had that player to do something in the final third.

I look on our bench and if we need a goal, I don’t believe a Willock, or a Reiss Nelson are going to pick out a killer pass with minutes to go.

I will be honest I only watched both play in European not domestic football, so am interested who your choice would be?

Aouar or Partey?

Be Kind In The Comments

Dan Smith

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84 Comments

  1. I find it embarrassing that our owner can spend big bucks on his American football team but when it comes to finding 45million for partry which in today’s transfer fees is not much. do to lack of investment over previous years we have not made the champion league stages.if he invested in arsenal then we wouldnt be where we are now playing catch up.

    1. Mark, unfortunately Arsenal is where it is because the Club’s senior executives and Board have not spent wisely in the transfer market and have mismanaged player contracts.
      Yes KS&E could provide an interest free loan to be repaid from player sales, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Also, Arsenal has to transfer out non home grown players to meet the quota conditions, before bringing in players such as Partey and Aouar.

    2. @Mark

      Ultimately you are correct. Kroenke should have sacked Wenger and Gazidis well over a decade ago. He took too much of a hands-off approach, and we all know what happened.

      In the history of football, I am struggling to think of a club that performed as badly, in regards to contract negotiations, and player sales, as we did under the inept double act of Wenger and Gazidis.

      1. I think it is mentioned that Wenger was bound to continue as manager by some banks, due to the debt issue. I agree about Gazidis though. Certainly, 2015-2017 was a period where Wenger could have retired

  5. I will definitely pick Aouar over partey. Defensively we have enough cover in Mou, granit, ceballos… All we need now is someone to add more steam to the flow of the ball in the final third.

  6. Surely it as to be Partey to be paired with Xhaka he has bags of champions league experience and has performed exceptional when I’ve watched him play .
    Aouar is an unknown coming from an easier league where as he wouldn’t have the same time in the ball playing over here .
    Also what I’ve seen of him he plays same areas as Ceballos so why did we get him in on loan for another season for him to be benched .
    Shame we didn’t go for Doucoure ,cheaper than both and won of the best midfielders in the league these last few seasons playing in a sub par team .

    1. For me if you can not win then you have to defend well, having a player that is difficult to beat or pass by in a big game is good, so I prefer party

    2. Dan kit, I agree with you on Doucoure. Given his performances in the EPL for Watford, particularly against Arsenal, it is difficult to understand why Arteta wasn’t interested.
      As far as the question, Thomas Partey is a class above, although more costly than Doucoure. AM don’t want to sell and are trying to get Partey to sign an upgraded contract with a greatly increased buy out clause, which will make him unattainable price wise. This is an opportunity to get a strong, physically commanding quick box to box midfielder in the mould of Patrick Viera. I agree with you that Aouar would be good to have, but not the necessity Partey is for now. Currently the Club has Ceballos, who would have the freedom to play further forward. Arsenal may end up with Aouar as well, if Lyon lower their price given there haven’t been other takers.
      If Arsenal have some spare funds I would like to see a specialist DM come in like Soumare or Roca, to balance the midfield. I am sick and tired of Arsenal being bullied in midfield.

      1. Ozzie: In fact the more I look at Soumare, I think we should rather go for him than Partey. First he would be cheaper, he is younger, and perhaps more importantly he is very good as a DM with a very good passing range and dribbling skills. I see a box to box MF in there. I am also puzzled by our lack of planning; if Aouar is plan A for creativity, what is plan B? Surely there must be players across the continent who can do the job for less money. Said plan B should not be Jorginho though.

        1. I’ve been saying this for quite some time, Arsenal’s planning is woeful. The likes of Bissouma, Soumare can be brought in for cheap as against Partey. I think Roma can be bullied into selling Pelligrini, Actually wondered why he wasn’t brought up in the Mikh deal.

  7. How l wish we sign both, I sincerely hope we do,if it happen we can only get one I would go for Thomas partey

    1. Yeh i agree really think we could sign both players if we can get shot of 3 or 4 players we would have the funds to do both deals but it will prob go to the last minute on the last day of the transfer window no Arsenal transfer buisness is ever that straight forward!!

  8. Getting the both would be great but it is looking likely that we will get one.

    And latest Aouar news is showing that he will be the one chosen.

    Though I would have picked Partey cause that is what we need most in our midfield.

    We have young players in Saka, Smith-Rowe that can carry the ball and create goals from midfield
    but we do not have a man of steel in midfield which is very essential in big games.

  9. Ideally, I would want both but the way we’re playing currently I will take hossem auoar because he’s almost like a goal scoring eden hazard and since Ramsey left we haven’t gotten a real goal scorer from the central midfield and we lack that tight space dribbling spark from the middle after santi cazorla left.

  10. Partey!!
    I’m not saying I’ll be disappointed if we do sign Aouar, I just think Partey should be top priority!

    1. We need both, we need to get rid of… Mustafi.. Sok.. Kolas.. Torrer.. Ozil (please god)….
      Leno
      Bell salliba gab. Tierney
      Partley
      Cabbello. Aouar
      Pepe. Lacca. Auba
      Definitely top 4

      1. Aouar would be great for attacking football. Partey, I believe would help greatly with defense as a defensive midfielder.
        It would be great to get both, but I’m leaning more towards Aouar.

  12. For me it depends on the formation we are going to be using this season. If it the 343 then i think aouar is our pressing need (we needs creativity in there)… But if its the 433 then probably partey would be the obvious choice (for his defensive awareness) then we leave the creative jobs to willian, dani c, saka and smith rowe. Though i would still be happy with any one of them coming.

  13. I was thinking Aouar but now i think Partey has to be the priority.
    If we can play 433 with him at the base and 2 advanced 8s,i think many of our problems will be solved including creativity issues.

  14. Elnely and Ceballos have proven enough they can partner Xhaka as the holding midfield duo, so I’d say Aouar for creativity in our team

  15. If our money grabbing owner had any ambitions he would fund both deals but he doesn’t care just wants to take in the money and fill his own pockets can’t stand the dirty greedy yank!!

  17. Not gonna lie, did not know about these two players before they were linked to Arsenal.
    I just watched YouTube clips of them last night and I have to go with the PARTEY fella.
    He seems like that driving muscle we need in our midfield.

    1. That the thing I bet 90% of fans ,maybe more having even seen Aouar play ,but as soon as we get linked fans jump all over it and get the mindset that any signing is better than none ,I will admit I’ve watched one full game with him playing and he didn’t stand out all game ,but one game is not to judge ,I would love someone with knowledge that as actually watched him play constantly to tell us their views and if he could play in this league at a high standard .
      Again partey is another player myself I’ve watched a handful of times ,out the 2 Partey would definitely be the choice for me .

  21. Aouar is 22 and has a possible 9 to 10 years at the top in him and Partey is 28 and has a possible 2 to 3 years at the top left in him,it’s a no brainer !

      1. I think he is talking about respective longevity. True enough Partey is going to be the engine of the team, and given the high pace of the league, I cannot see him performing at a very high level for more than about three years. Then he would have little resale value.

        1. So it is OK to sign Aubameyang at 31 on a three year contract, but Partey has no sell on value if you sign him to a 4 year contract at 27?
          If Arsenal get 4 good seasons from Thomas Partey, who gives a rat’s arse about sell on value? What do you want Arsenal to be be: a club which develops and recycles players for sell on value, or a club that buys players to win trophies?
          Arsenal were once called the feeder club for Manchester City and hopefully those days are gone.

  23. Yes, I think that we need both players as we need to tighten our back line and midfield. There will be time where we need 4 in center line that the attacking midfield is a prefer one

  24. As for me I will pick THOMAS PARTEY, that guy is a beast in midfield. I can remember watching him play right back against arsenal in Europa which we lost 1-0 to Atm and I was shocked. Willain can play attacking midfield. So I will prefer partey who can help our defense and also build up play himself, his goals are also screamers. Since we have a good striker who delivers when given opportunity . I will prefer partey that will give luiz more joy.

  26. I personally think most of the fans that come on here are a little deluded and think money grows on trees.

    I’m pretty sure KSE won’t invest in the club until the loan he took on and restructured is paid off. its simple. People say he hasn’t invested but in reality he has by taking the clubs debts and restructuring them so we have more money to play with each season.

    Now, we’re in a pandemic, we have literally no money to spend unless we sell, trouble is ALL THE PLAYERS WE WANT TO SELL ARE INJURED!
    Couple that with silly salaries these average or over the hill players on we will struggle and we are.

    Now we have just over a week left of the window, so we may actually see some movement with some of those due to panic stations from clubs that havent been able to get their 1st choice targets that are indeed fit.

    For me just Partey this window, he will give us options in changing formation and be able to play more aggressive in attack as we will be able to defend in a back 4.
    We also already have Pepe, ESR Willian and Saka that need more game time, so adding another attacking player isnt the biggest priority imo

    1. For f@#k sake you are the one who is deluded, the owner is a billionaire and won’t die for taking money out of his pocket to help. Abramovich has done it over and over and the revenues obtained at the end of the season justifies how he does his business. Similar to Mansour did it at city. If Greece itself has been bailed out on several occasions despite the fact their contribution to the EU is low.

    2. Val,
      No that is not what he has done, it is called an extension, refinanced the loan, at a lower rate and over a longer term, meaning the Arsenal get to pay back more money to the banks.

      staN is only looking after his raMs failure at present.

  27. Actually, it all depend on the manager. If the manager see Ainsley as a midfielder, then he might not need Partey and go for Aouar but I can see that happen.

  28. Best we sign both but pushed to the wall, I’d opt for Partey.
    Xhaka and Ceballos are good offensively but not hugely dependable defensively and Partey adds more steel.

  29. Partey!
    Partey!!
    Partey!!!

    My countryman is a complete midfielder. He can pass, tackle, shoot and dribble. He’s more powerful than Essien. He has a dream of following Essien’s footsteps in EPL. The guy wants to join. This is our chance to get the best of Partey. Make it happen Arsenal.

  30. Partey would be the one, replacing the weak link Xhaka, Aoer would be great but he isnt the neediest one for us to move forwards as a team.

  32. Sadly, Dans question looks likely to be a relevant one. The determining factor for me is their age difference and hence value in any possible resale OR long term use, more realistically.

    On that factor it HAS to Aoure. Were they both the same age I would personally prefer Partey though. But they are NOT and as ever I am a realist.

    1. jon, what’s wrong with a player staying at Arsenal and winning things until they retire? How many years did Bergkamp have playing for another club or in another league? Why should Arsenal be a selling club, unless to improve deficient areas?

  33. Partey..,both would be great.The hierachy to allow Arteta to do his thing and not involve him in club politics.With Partey,MA would relish use of ozil and our strikers would thrive too.Partey gives the team a better balance both offensive and defensive.

  34. I believe if we can sign partey,then ozil can be utilized in a midfield three of partey,xhaka nd ozil…i believe that ozil won’t need much tracking back with partey nd xhaka protecting our back four…or are we paying ozil all year to sit on the bench?

    1. Partey (box to box) with a specialist DM may be an option with Ozil as CAM in some matches in his last season at the Emirates. Whether Xhaka has the tackling and ball winning ability to help compensate for Ozil is questionable.

  35. Going by the way arsenal team plays presently, the team needs a midfielder that can create, defend and score goals at the same time, unfortunately we lost Ramsey, can partey do this? Can Aouar do this? I don’t know much about them, but the way people are describing Aouar it seems he ll be better for that, We need a goal scoring midfielder so as to reduce pressure on Auba.

  37. Why do we buy Aouar when we have Pepe who can play in the number 10 position? 54m pounds for Aouar under these circumstances of revenue loss makes no sense. Aouar will need an adaptation period as well. We need Partey More.

    4213 formation.

    Bellerin Gabriel Luiz Tierney

    Partey Xhaka

    Pepe

    Willian Lacazette. Aubameyang

    1. Aouar is just having a gentle stroll in the sunshine at Lorient. I’m seeing his team mates not passing to him and no pressing or tackling. Save the money and play our kids.

  38. We need both period. I can choose and there is nothing to choose.BTW Partey is my country man and no him too much as for Aouar videos and stats shows he is good. We have to try and make things perfect.

      1. When I checked earlier I didn’t see his name listed at all Sue.
        As always I stand to be corrected and very often am 🤦‍♂️

        1. Not as much as I am 😂
          He’s under only ‘Thomas’….. I saw his name there… too good to he on the bench, send him over to NL 😉

  41. pls excuse my poor english.
    its tough, would love them both join us. defensively i think we are okay as long as using 3-4-3 formation, but as shown in westham game we lacked Creativity. Hence we need another santi/nasri type of player to create numerous chances. he is younger too only 22.
    with Partey though we can dominate midfielder easily, this is what we are missing since Vieira. we’ll be tougher to beat. top four guaranteed.
    I’d say PARTEY first!!

  42. We definitely need a man of still in midfield, Patrick Viera … i will go with Partey.
    The truth however is we need both.

  43. Partey for me to add steel to our midfield and champion teams are built from the back. Creativity role can be shared by the other players we have to a certain extent.

  44. Partey all the way. He is on the bench today, that means he’s on his way out and they don’t want to risk injury. Also Aour is not in Lyon team today, that maybe because of the red card he got in the last game though.

  45. Partey, considering the need for immediate improvement and his experience in big games and playing in a relatively similar league to EPL, at least more than Ligue 1.

  46. GET BOTH PARTEY AND AOUAR, CREATIVITY IS NEEDED IN THE MIDDFIELD AND THE DEEP SIX IS NEEDED THEFORE GET BOTH

  47. Partey should be a no brainer … Arteta has done a great job at strengthening the defence by having more defensive minded midfield and getting attack to do more defending …in part that is needed because xhaka elneny Willock ceballos etc are not very good at defending so there was strength in numbers … Partey is a solid defender and more dominating personality that would allow ceballos more freedom to roam forward … Willian aube Pepe saka martinelli and laca whole suffice for attacking options indeed I would let laca go if that was only source of financing .. At end of day though the greedy yank simply hasn’t committed resources sufficiently compared to rivals and there have been too many poor purchases with what has been made available

  48. Aouar! he is what we needed most and he younger. We can still manage to use xhaka, elmeny and ceballos as DM but no midfield creator general aside of barnished Ozil.
    Arsenal in the past was Hallmark of attacking players, blessed with season after season, o oo Fabregas, nasri, khleb,Ozil, carzola, rosicky, bergkamp… But this current team has only saka and William.

  49. Partey over Aouar anyday, partey is strong and a proper box to box midfielder who will replace Ramsey well without worried and can even play right back if needed. He had more successful dribbles and passes than Aouar via statistics. I will love both because we need an attacking midfield and a box to box/dmf. But if we can only get one Thomas partey is all I pray for. I only hope Arteta will give him freedom to shoot from outside box then I know we will enjoy our money paid. But I know Arsenal are working on both and I believe they can surprise us by granting us our wish. Why Arsenal is after Aouar first is because he doesn’t have release cause and has more clubs interested than Partey. Arsenal can still trigger Partey release clause on deadline day atm has no say if done.

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