William Gallas has expressed concern over Arsenal’s decision to allow Thomas Partey to leave the club, with the Ghanaian midfielder set to depart on Monday following unsuccessful contract negotiations.
Gallas Believes Partey Deserves to Stay
Partey and Arsenal had been involved in lengthy discussions regarding a contract extension, but the talks failed to result in an agreement. Both the club and the player were reportedly open to continuing their relationship, but no deal was finalised. As a result, Partey is expected to leave the Emirates Stadium as a free agent.
His impending departure comes despite his key role in the team last season. Partey was an important figure in Arsenal’s midfield, offering experience, composure and balance throughout the campaign. His consistent performances contributed significantly to the Gunners’ overall success and progress, and his exit has disappointed many supporters.
While Arsenal are reportedly close to finalising a deal for a replacement, the loss of a player of Partey’s calibre has drawn criticism, with questions being raised about the club’s decision-making in this instance.
Gallas Questions Arsenal’s Transfer Strategy
Former Arsenal defender William Gallas is among those who believe letting Partey go is a mistake. As cited by Goal.com, Gallas stated:
“I don’t know. I think with his quality, he could stay at Arsenal. With what he has offered to the club over the last few years, he can easily stay. And with their depth right now, I think it is best to add, not replace. I’m not sure of the reasons why he might leave, but I’m not sure it would be the best thing if he left.”
Gallas’ remarks highlight a belief that Arsenal should be focusing on strengthening the squad by building around proven talent, rather than allowing key players to leave without adequate cause. His view reflects a broader concern that the club may risk weakening its midfield at a crucial stage in their development.
While Arsenal may feel confident in their recruitment strategy, allowing an experienced and reliable figure like Partey to depart could be a decision they come to regret.
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Arsenal want him to stay too, but he wants a pay rise which the club are not prepared to offer.
So, it’s a 2-way thing. Partey probably knows he can get much more going to Saudi. Fair play to him.
I think we have another Alex Song situation here.
We’ll only realise how good and important he was once he leaves and the replacements are just mediocre Arteta clones
But it’s the same Arteta that bought Partey that you are now crying for. Was he a mediocre Arteta clone when be bought him 5 years ago?
😊
No friend, that’s actually not how that went down.
There’s a lot more context and backstory that lead to Thomas Partey signing for Arsenal on deadline day.
It wasn’t because of Arteta’s brilliant scouting or anything like that. Back then Arteta was just a coach, not club manager. The hierarchy of the club was different.
I was always a big fan of song – for a couple of years he was one of our top two or three players in virtually every game, and I really thought we’d have failed to make top four without him. Bossed the midfield in almost every game. Very underrated player imo because people saw him as an average DM rather than a brilliant CM – he didn’t always track back effectively, which did cost us at times, and did prevent him being one of the very best in Europe tbf. He was strong and could tackle, but his best attributes were more his close control and passing skills – he needed a flamini/Gilberto next to him, but many people (possibly including Wenger) wanted him to be that kind of defensively minded player. I do think he was too money-driven in the end, but I also think he was one of our best players and should have been paid as such, but my impression is Wenger wanted everyone to be paid similarly, regardless of importance to the team (which never made sense to me and I’m sure allowed for exceptions anyway).
In this case, I think partey is on the decline and we’ve moved to ensure we have a viable replacement in zubi – I think we would have kept TP for depth had he been willing, but we don’t need to overpay on his wages now that we have that replacement. There’s a risk zubi doesn’t work out as we hope, but there’s just as much risk partey can’t play a full season for us next season, or his form drops off even further. We have done the right thing imo.
Ok that’s is a fair assessment,
My point mainly was that if we head into the new season with Zubimendi and Norgard soon we’ll find that is not good enough to win important games.
World class players like Partey bring extra intangible things to the team that are hard to spot immediately. It’s not just goals and assists.
So if we’re losing a world class players we should replace him with another world class player, like Tchouaméni or Barella.
Not some bargain bin signing that may or may not be world class in the future.
When is this “future” coming? This is the 6th season now with Arteta in charge. The club is just rinsing and repeating strategies from the Wenger playbook.
What did we win with Partey?
We need leadership and Norgard will provide that in games when we are a 0-0 against frustrating teams. We lose points against the poorer teams and that is what I feel Mikel is addressing.
Credit to Arteta/Bertha for scouting Norgard and not some cast off from the blue side..Norgard is captain for a reason and a much better player than Jorginho, the player he replaces. Zubs replaces Partey another good decision if he signs for us.
If Mikel hires Gyko and Jonathan David and get rid of Gabby J & Havertz, we could win the big ones for sure.
But what are you trying to say really? At no point in this conversation I have called for signing blue cast-offs, that’s what Arteta and Kroenke have been doing for years and precisely the reason why we haven’t won anything yet. Your messaging is inconsistent.
I’m saying under Arteta and Kroenke, the standards of the club have fallen very low. We are signing players that Spurs and West Ham would typically sign, rather than competing for world class players with City and Liverpool.
Castoff from the Blues?
We just signed Kepa.
We sign goalkeepers virtually every summer.
He’s a Blue castoff.
And I wonder why he agreed to become a backup to his own compatriot with whom he’s competing for a place in the national team especially when he know that Arteta doesn’t rotate especially at the goalkeeper position. I doubt it’s about competition. More like him wanting security at a big club.
Clubs like Liverpool and Madrid have second keepers who want to leave for game time while we know how Martnez’s career has panned out after leaving us for game time. Kepa is leaving game time to come and rest here. This is a player who has held the post for Madrid and won both La Liga and the CL
Agree, it does smell a bit.
@The Soba Reality Show: How is it Partey’s fault that we didn’t win anything with him – the same Partey we endlessly played as a defender even where this was uncalled for?
And how is Partey responsible for the striker we didn’t sign last summer? And why are you mum about our unproductive left wing?
And there’s not much protest about Sterling?
Why are you not making as much noise about Havertz who’s continuously wondering why he’s paid so huge a fortune inconsistent with his performances?
Pals, relax, I have been very vocal on the bad signings of Mikel specially the blues cast offs, but this season what’s changed
1. Kepa for 5 Million, its a steal, a good back up unlike 10M waste for Jorginho who had 6 months left, or Sterling loan or Willian or even Petr Chek years ago.
2. What’s wrong with Norgard? Aback up who has EPL experience.
3. Good players carry the team, turn around games, once clinical pass can change the result. Sorry Partey was not that player. Plus his injury record, Mikel did the right thing.
4. Why pick only Martinelli? How productive was Odegard last season? The whole attack bar Saka was playing with the handbrakes on, I have constantly criticized that over the season.
Lets criticize Mikel when he deserves it, simply criticizing for everything does not sound sane to me. I still believe that Mikel is not the man to lead us to glory, there are better managers out there but we have to put up with him as he is on contract which the owners are reluctant /may not to terminate. Coming second in the league for 3 seasons justifies his contract, if he is willing to bin Gabby J and Kai for Gyko then he needs to be supported by the board and fans.Lets not judge him before a ball is kicked before the new season has started..
That was exactly my point yesterday.
Given our current ambitions, we can’t be signing players like Nørgaard who aren’t arsenal quality in any way. City will never sanction such a signing given what they want to achieve every season. We should have gotten another quality replacement so that in case of injury, suspension or loss of form, there would be little or no dropoff in that position. Nørgaard doesn’t offer us that and if Zubimendi (assuming he works out well which I hope) isn’t available for any reason, it’s our fans who will come out with the same lame excuses of us not having quality players on the bench and use it as an excuse for failure. Talk about prioritizing the bank balance over sporting achievements.
Precisely, thank you.
City out there signing the best player in Serie A with financial crimes, Liverpool signing the best player in Bundesliga, meanwhile Arsenal here with a healthy bank balance trying to sign an average squad player from Brentford, not even their best player 🤣
United and Spurs are competing for Brentdord’s best while we are signing a Brentford player based on LEADERSHIP QUALITY while not hurting the bank balance. There’s still more than enough time in this window to get another quality DM to sufficiently replace Partey but we acted like it’s an emergency akin to Jorginho’s signing.
Dan would always point out that we’ve had a net spend of £15m in the last 3 windows while merchandise and tickets will usually go up. Yet we still prioritize the bank.
If City (based on their performance against Juventus) are truly back, then I fear for next season and I’m being honest.
What Dan doesn’t seem to take into account when going on about the net spend is how much the club has to pay out. Wages to every employee of the club, which goes right down to the match day stewards. Transfer fees that we owe to clubs that are spread out over a number of years. The police in games that have a history of trouble. Money we owe to Silent Stan for buying out the Bonds to helped pay for the building of the Emirates Stadium. Tax to the HMRC. The accounts for the 23/24 season showed a loss of £18m.
Sorry to disagree, but Arsenal isn’t the only club that has to pay XYZ for tax, dividends, workers, etc. Every other club does too.
Also, how many journalists have come out last season to definitively state that Arsenal has a lot of money. Little surprise about the rumoured £300m war chest (which I don’t believe anyway). Those guys may not have detailed knowledge of the balance sheets but they do have quite a few information to have been making such statements repeatedly.
Yet, with all the time in the world to sign a quality DM to maintain our level and keep Zubimendi on his toes, we hurriedly go for an average 31 year old from Brentford just not to hurt the balance. That doesn’t speak of ambition to me. Would City or Liverpool sign Nørgaard? Those clubs are supposed to be our competition.
It’s naive
Look how many clubs did business in January ( you don’t think they have staff to pay )
Based on any metric you want , Arsenal are not close to breaching any financial rules and if they wanted too of course could have spent more ( net) then approx 15 million in 3 windows
Hence where do you think the press get this 300 million war chest from ?
It’s an insult to any Gooner who pays some of the most expensive tickets in the Prem
Not in good faith at all
@dgr8xt: I’ve significantly toned down my expectations for next season.
Just trying to be realistic and also preserve my health
Rootklt,
At least with Wenger we won trophy’s. 🙄🤦♂️
as good as he is, he is not indispensable, fair play to him last season, he has no injury throughout, who knows what will happen this season. I think the club is working smart here and no player should hold them to ransom again like Ozil and Aubameyang. the good thing is that those that are leaving are being replaced by equally good quality but different profile.
They are? Who? Where?
You mean Norgard?
We are competing for players that Spurs and West Ham should sign, that’s how low our standards have fallen under Arteta and Kroenke…
We should not be bargain bin hunting for cheap players at the bottom of Laliga and premier league.
We should be bringing in the likes of Tchouaméni
@Asiru Raheem: How has Partey held Arsenal to ransom?
Has he taken them by surprise that he has not extended is contract? Or has he forced to stay if Arsenal doesn’t agree to his request?
A lot of these reactions mostly based on hearsay are quite surprising indeed.