Arsenal have been strongly linked with the signing of Thomas Partey, but Rio Ferdinand has told Chelsea that they should be signing him.
The Blues were believed to be favouring a move to sign former youth product and West Ham star Declan Rice, but have struggled to strike a deal with their London rivals.
They are now being linked with a move to sign Atletico Madrid’s Partey, who Arsenal have been linked with throughout 2020.
Ferdinand is of the belief that he would be a great signing for the West London club.
He told BT Sport (via Metro): ‘I think a huge thing for them is to stop conceding goals. I think Frank would have looked at it last season and three of the back four that will be playing today are new players.
‘He’ll have seen that, a lot of goals conceded and I think the most conceded in 22 years at the club. More importantly we reports today of Partey coming in in that central area.
‘I don’t think he’s happy with the likes of Kovacic or Jorginho. You can see that because he’s chopping and changing in those positions.
‘Getting someone like that in to protect the back four or five along with Kante goes a long way to nullifying the goals against.’
While Ferdinand was wrong to say three of Chelsea’s back four
were new players, three of their back five if you include the keeper, or two of their back four in Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell were indeed brought in over the summer.
Arsenal on the other hand have moved to bring in only two new players during the current window, and are strongly in need of another signing in midfield, with our central roles having been our weakness in a number of matches.
Partey would no doubt be a top signing for the Blues, but our club should be way ahead having chased him for months, and we actually need to pull our fingers out to make this happen.
Do Arsenal fans still think Partey will be joining the club this month?
Patrick
Sigh……
I’m finding meself an AA meeting Sue…
Hi everyone my name is Hoyte, and I’m an Arsenal fan😭😭😭
Always said AFC will either drive me to drink or be the death of me 😂😂😂😂
Me wife warned me, father tried to stop me, but you see I was long lost. I fell into this toxic relationship with Arsenal. Now I’ve got nothing left but pain and me alcohol.. Thank you everyone
The way Arsenal have almost obsessively concentrated on Aouar is silly. There is time to make up for it though. Sadly Ibrahim Sangaré has gone to PSV…..but….Boubakary Soumaré, probably the best young midfielder in France, is STILL available. Anybody at the Emirates awake? WAKE UP!
Lol…okay for real though this is embarrassing for me. I looked forward to this the most and kept believing but then it seems completely over.
Apologies to everyone..
Dan Smith you better stay TF away from me😂😂😂
Apologies bro, I jumped the gun and was way too excited with this one.
It could still happen but even myself don’t wanna believe it anymore.
It was a free shot at Aouar.
Once again apologies to everyone I gave hope.
That’s it, all my positivism for this season is gone with that deal.
I’ll bet tom is kicking himself for not putting that bet on with you hahaha
HE meant back 5, Chilwell, Silva and Mendy
Our transfer dealings are a joke. Chasing one player until the end of window just to turn into panic mode 2 days before.
Aouar pursuit is dead… If we go after Jorginho we’re fools. Would rather get nobody than waste more money on players that aren’t good enough. Everyone has seen enough of Jorginho to know he isn’t a fit for this league. We can assume Partey is 100% not happening either. So recap: Atleti get Torreira on loan, no obligation ,keep Partey. We waste most of our time on a player that isn’t coming. We buy Gabriel (good), and Willian (fine). Cant come up with Aouar cash, but quick to splash it on flipping Pablo Mari who has kicked the ball for us a grand total of one time. Don’t get this club. It’s awful all around and clearly the incompetence is deeply rooted behind the scenes. Arteta has not been back and is being set up to fail.
It’s not over. The best young midfielder in France is Boubakary Soumaré. He is very available.
Would rather have a complete, proven player than another young talent. Just a few months ago we were raving about how amazing Saliba was going to be this season and now he’s going on loan. Facts are that these guys are young and moving to a new country and aren’t guarenteed successes right away like Partey couldve been.
He was ours to lose – and have we lost him ?
“Arsenal will not sign Houssem Aouar. They will try to get Jorginho though.“
Julien Laurens
@LaurensJulien
Frenchman in England talking all things football on ESPN, BT Sport, RMC Sport, the Totally Football Show and 5Live
More reliable than any other “source” out there – who knows.
Our dealings in the market remain a constant frustration!
Buying a new player is always a gamble. Thomas Partey could be our new Patrick Vieira, but he could also be the next Xhaka, Moussa Sissoko, Renato Sanches, Corentin Tolisso, Tanguy Ndombele and Max Meyer
Those powerful box-to-box CMs were more promising than Partey, but they flop at their new clubs. My point is why gamble on some central midfielders from a peasant league like Ligue 1, when we could have bought a highly skillful and versatile midfielder who we’ve been testing in two seasons
Partey isn’t “promising” tho, he’s a complete player that has been part of an Atleti side that has reached UCL final, won Europa, and consistently finish high in La Liga. Majority of the players you named moved when young and never hit the heights that were expected. You can’t put Partey in taht same category. Obviously any player can fail when they move but some are more liekly than others, and Partey was not very likely to flop given the vast amount of experience he has. He’s proven.
Lyon want 50 to 70 M for the common CAM Aouar and Atletico want 50 M for the so-to-be 28 years old Partey. We could have gambled on Eduardo Camavinga with that amount of money instead, a 17 years old left-footed French international DM who could have replaced Xhaka
Camavinga is highly priced too. And he plays too advance to be considered a DM and replacement for Xhaka. He’s also from the same peasant league you just insulted so confused about that pick.
Who is your ideal alternative target for Aouar by the way. I agree that Aouar wasn’t going to be a surefire success. But it seems our alternative is not Jorginho who we already know isn’t good enoguh.
*is now Jorginho
Look at Squawka comparison of Aouar’s/ Ceballos’/ Xhaka;s/ Guendouzi’s/ Torreira’s last season stats:
squawka.com/en/comparison-matrix/?compare=NG_351shYabGbJeQ0WCGQ
Ceballos was the best with the highest touches, ball recoveries, assists, chances created, passes attempted, tackles made, take-on success percentage and interception stats, despite playing in less games. If Lyon want 50 M for Houssem Aouar, we could have bought Ceballos for 30 M and have extra 20 M to buy someone else
Looking at the stats, it’s apparent that Aouar played as CAM behind a striker last season. Whereas Ceballos only played twice as no 10 and played as deep-lying playmaker afterwards
My point is why gamble on some central midfielders in a peasant league like Ligue 1, when we could have bought a highly skillful and versatile midfielders who we’ve been testing in two seasons
Ceballos is not worth 30mill. Also, we literally have MORE money because we did not spend on Ceballos and got a loan deal instead. We quickly forget he only stepped up his game after the COVID pause.
Ceballos is a CAM who can play decently as deep-lying playmaker like Fabregas, Nasri and Cazorla. He was excellent as no 10 in Spain national football team and at Arsenal, but he’s forced to play in deep midfield area due to 3-4-3 formation
He’s not close to the level of either of those three players.
Arsenal are absolutely awful at signing and getting rid of players… They made signing Denis Suarez on loan look like they were negotiating a deal to bring Ronaldo and Messi to the Emirates and even then it was touch and go lol
I thought we had turned the corner regarding transfers Kev .
Getting in Gabriel early also Ceballos (who I don’t rate personally)now it seems we have left it to late once again when every man and his dog knows we need reinforcements in the midfield .
I will be bitterly disappointed if by Tuesday morning we go in to the remainder of the season with the midfielders we currently have .
We have a spec manager but once agin it looks like he won’t be backed with the players he wanted .
The Thing that’s annoying me is that we have let Madrid have Torreira when we haven’t even gone for Partey.
I will wait till Tuesday before I rant but it’s not looking good .
Yeah I’m not surprised Dan, I said the other day Aouar and Partey is very unlikely.. we dragged our heals all summer looking for a discount that was never on offer! I’m not sure how serious we were in bringing those 2 to the club, they knew the price and we’re still trying to haggle both clubs! Dan I said the same thing to my mate regarding the Torreira loan, and he just said Arsenal must frustrate the life out of you Supporters and he’s a Southampton fan so that’s saying something isn’t it ? 😂 haha not good at all but we’ll see soon mate.
Keep believing and be positive like arteta even when you know the club won’t support you
I am very sorry, but if Edu and Arteta have really screwed up this transfer window then there are no excuses. There are still very good players on the market in Ligue 1. I don’t care who they think they are, to end up with Elneny, Xhaka and Ceballos as our midfield would be shameful. They have 2 days to get out of the hole and it better not be Jorginho. Disgraceful.
It’s an interesting one this.
Given bringing in “world class” in terms of the finished article , is an absolute rarity for us, the following often crosses my mind.
How many of us have actually seen / followed players from overseas we are linked with .
Or do we simply get carried away on a tide of increasing expectation as any given transfer windows builds.
When strongly linked with a player, I try to watch him at his current club for as many games as possible to form some kind of accurate appraisal.
Not always easy !
However, I’m sure us Gooners are a canny bunch.
You bring up a good point A J. If we were in for Pepe all summer and it didn’t work out I’m sure we’d all be furious, but we now know he’s not worth close to the money we paid for. That’s just the nature of transfers tho isn’t it? Sometimes you dodge a bullet like Lemar, and sometimes you get hit by one. We’ll never know how Aouar could’ve turned out I suppose.
RSH
So you would stick with Elneny, Xhaka and Ceballos? You are joking…I hope. If you are serious then what can I say. We are done for.
Sean, that’s literally not what I said. Please re-read.
Sometimes we just have to walk away when the price is not right. 50m + 10m in add-ons for Aouar is not a price, it’s a ransom.
After Laca and Pepe, some French clubs think we will continue to bend over and let them shove their pineapples up ours.
Let’s not forget that our recent big-money signings from Ligue 1, like Laca and Pepe, have not gone on to become the great players we thought they would be
A team that ends up with 1 or 2 shots on target after 90 minutes is still positive. This pandemic could have affected arsenal ONLY , no problem but a reminder we finished eighth last season
Aston Villa is outspending us. So are Spurs. Intersting how they can spend after overpaying for a stadium so soon. Took us a decade of selling our best players when we got a new stadium. Can we just admit this club is poorly run?
We may be poorly run, but if we pay that 50m + 10m ransom, we are run worse than I thought
So just pay whatever Lyon wants, even when it’s clearly over the odds?
Leeds has shown us against Liverpool and now against City that the system matters more than the players
Wenger ended badly because of his transfer decisions,even emery too,things will worsen if this arteta man and his friend Edu don’t style up and do the needful
Kroenke funds Trump. Remember he wanted to have a hunting Channel where we could watch animals being shot. That’s what Kroenke wants to soend his money on.
Kronke OUT!!!! Just sell the club for a fair price and just take your ambition somewhere else. This relationship is too furlong.
What a load of dismal Jimmies on this thread. Talk about “Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring”! WAIT AND SEE IS MY ADVICE TO ALL THE SUICIDAL PESSIMISTS!
What hace you done with Jon fox? Is this optimism ??
Now I’m worried!!
No Aouer No Partey… No Top4.
Jorginho, that must be a joke to wind Arsenal fans up. Well done Edu we have now Xhaka & Elneny for CDM… while Cabellos & Willock for CM.
Top6 if we are lucky with this team especially the way Everton are playing & Bought. Leicester still playing well and Leeds are the surprise package this season and fair play to them.
Liverpool, City, Utd, Chelsea are ahead of us. Spurs maybe on Par and we will struggle against the smaller teams.