The Partey That Keeps Arteta For The Long Term? By Dan Smith
Because it looked like the deal was dead, Gooners are rightly overjoyed that we signed Thomas Partey. I woke up on Transfer Deadline Day reading we had sacked Gunnersaurus so that didn’t make me feel we were a club about to spend some serious money. I guess PR wise it would have been disaster to make our mascot unemployed then fail to make a signing.
I would go as far as saying that Stan Kroenke stopped Arteta from leaving long term by finding the 45 million to activate Partey’s release clause. Imagine if this is Pep Guardiola’s final season at Man City, I could see them approach their former assistant manager. If his owner doesn’t match his ambition, why would he stay? I believe our manager could be that good.
I’m not going to say well done to Mr Kroenke…
When you club finishes 8th, your worst position in 25 years that’s when I expect any businessman to step in, especially if your company is failing.
The sale of Martinez and Greenwood covered the Gabriel fee.
55 redundancies saved 2 million a year which got Runarsson.
Mkhitaryan’s salary was replaced with Willian’s.
Ceballos’s wage has always been covered by what we saved by releasing Ramsey.
Guendouzi and Torreira wages will now be given to Partey (I guess so will a hopeful transfer fee down the line?).
So 45 million on a squad that finished 43 points behind the Champions to me is standard practice.
Liverpool
Man City
United
Chelsea
Spurs
Everton
Villa
Sheff United
Leeds
All of the above teams had a bigger net spend than Arsenal!
What makes this deal such a commitment from the Kroenke family is that we have given La Liga 45 million upfront.
Atletico Madrid always made it clear that the only way the midfielder would be leaving was if his release clause was activated.
As they should, 45 million is more than fair.
Yet Spanish rules dictate that any release clause can’t be in instalments paid over the years. Picture someone from Arsenal flying over to Madrid, meeting Pedro on a bench and handing over a suitcase with 45 million notes inside.
So I do appreciate in this current climate it took a lot for Mr Kroenke to authorize this transaction, especially with us not raising as much funds as we would have liked (Kolasinac, Mustafi, Sokratis, etc will again be up for sale in January).
I don’t think this deal would have happened had Emery been in charge. You don’t become a Billionaire without noticing when you have skilful people in certain departments. Arteta has improved individuals, shown the man management where people buy into his ideas, has a rapport with fans, and acts like a young coach who believes his ideas are as good as any of his peers.
Whereas you always felt the previous regime were yes men, accepting mediocrity because they were grateful to have a high-profile job.
Arteta has the mindset that even if others are better you can still find ways to win. He thinks and acts like we are a big club and perception becomes reality.
I think Silent Stan didn’t approve the money because of the player (he wouldn’t know who he is or even or care) but because he would be advised how good Arteta is and could be in the future.
We are good enough to make top 4. We needed at least another creative midfielder to be anything else. Yet one day if Arteta is lifting the title at the Emirates, then we can look back at this moment as the time we stopped the Spaniard from thinking about going elsewhere.
45 million to keep Arteta sweet? Well worth it…
Dan Smith