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