Arsenal are claimed to be ready to pull the plug on their pursuit of Thomas Partey, and I fear that our widely-speculated interest will now backfire, opening the door to one of our rivals to pick up where we left off.
When I say ‘one of’ our rivals, I more specifically think that Manchester United will waste no time in swooping in to land the Ghanaian international, strengthening one of their weakest positions, although City could also do with a player of his ilk this summer also.
Arsenal have done all the groundwork in tempting Partey into considering life as a Premier League player, with all signs pointing towards the midfielder having decided that he wants a change from La Liga, but the past 12 months have not gone to plan.
Nobody could have seen the Coronavirus pandemic coming, let alone consider that we would have seen our side drop out the race for European football, although we still have one last lifeline from the FA Cup final come Saturday, although Chelsea will not roll over willingly. All of this has had implications on our finances, and the prospect of having to pay Partey’s minimum fee release clause in order to sign him (believed to be around £45 Million) seems unfeasible at present.
Get French Football News has stated that Arsenal’s latest bid of around £23 Million plus Matteo Guendouzi was rejected by Atletico, who are holding out for the full £45 Million clause, naming journalist Fabrizio Romano as their source of information.
With Arsenal out of the running, Partey could well consider accepting the supposed contract offer which was tabled by his current club, but I assume that the player has already made his mind up, and that he will find himself a new home going into the new season.
Liverpool are also believed to be in the hunt for a new defensive midfielder, but reports seem to intimate that they will be spending very little in the current window, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Manchester City also register an interest in the 27 year-old.
City’s main defensive midfielder Fernandinho is currently 35 years-old, and has spent much of the campaign playing as a central defender, leaving the injury-prone Ilkay Gundogan and Spaniard Rodri to share the deeper midfield role, and one could argue that their defence hasn’t been given enough protection this season.
Will Arsenal’s season-long pursuit of Partey backfire, and see him strengthen one of our rivals problem areas instead?
Patrick
We will be making a big mistake if we dont sign Partey. His abilities and strength would be the missing link Arsenal always needed. We could sell Guendouzi, Ozil, Mhki and Socrates to make way for Partey. Hope the deal goes through specially if Partey likes the PL in general and Arsenal in particular.
We must not sell Guendouzi for anything
Who is Guendouzi? Is he some Messi or Dybala? What is the hype about Guendouzi? He is not good enough. Sell him today and move on. I don’t get why people keep talking about Guendouzi like he is some Messi or Asensio. How many goals has he scored? He has no pace. He can’t shield the ball. He can’t dribble. He is arrogant. His ego writes checks his body cannot cash. He passes sideways. He can’t run. We should offer 45m pounds to athletico for Partey. And also offer Guendouzi and cash to Barcelona for coutinho or Dembele.
It is only because he is French and came with a high reputation. He’s done very little for us since coming here. I really hope we can trick Barca into taking him for an inflated price. His strengths are running around like a chicken and leaving space all over the pitch. Once in a while he’ll put in a good ball up the pitch, but he’s hardly the only player capable of this. Nothing about Guendouzi is exceptional. If he succeeds somewhere else, more power to him, but it’s not going to happen at Arsenal.
Partey is not coming unless we cough up the money FULL STOP.
Partey will not be coming to Arsenal, he will be elsewhere next season.
Partey will not be moving to Man City where the priority is to acquire at least one CB, a left back and I believe, a striker.A friend of a friend is a Man City supporter.Arsenal will have to move to their second option as Partey looks to be outwith our modest budget.Who could the second option be?
This really brings home how “up a creek without apaddle ” we are under Kroenke. I am convinced that MA is desperately keen to land PARTEY,as are most of us on here, but Kroenke will forbid the purchase at that price. So we will now lose out once again. No wonder that despite the splendid Arteta, whom I for one think is a fabuous manager, we are stuck with the rancid and poisonous Kroenke sabotaging the club he owns and, laughably, professes to care about!
Jon, I agree with you. Also, 45m pounds is not much considering Rodrigo went to Man City for over 60m pounds. I watched Partey against Liverpool, he is top quality. Partey signing is a must. We have to out pressure on Kroenke to sign Partey. If he is not ready to make the right investment, then he should sell the club to a serious owner.
Jon, why would Kroenke interfere with the purchase of Thomas Partey at £43 million and then sanction the purchase of Wilfred Zaha at £70 million or a 17yo winger Fernandez at £40 million?
This just doesn’t make sense unless Arsenal has no funds available for any transfers this season without Kroenke’s personal contribution.
Why would we be willing to stump up a high fee for an unproven teenager yet refuse to pay a similar fee for Thomas Partey who is a proven quality player just the type we need?
We are already screwed financially before coronavirus and now i don’t think we can even manage to pay his clause with our full transfer budget. Most clubs are also weakened financially and chelsea is just spending the money they got for hazard plus the transfer budget they didn’t use because of their ban.
Arsenal should go for an attacking midfielder like Carzola and forget this partey of a guy. Dhaka should play that position. Just get coutinho and Benrahma in that midfield. And a left footed central defender. Finish. We lack skillful players that can dictate a game for us. Every time partey.
Emmaobi, you must be pulling my leg; you can’t be serious about the ability of Thomas Partey and what he would bring to Arsenal’s midfield?
Am repeating it, we need two skillful attacking midfielders like Coutinho and Benhrama. Partey is good no doubt but we have Xhaka that can play that wing. How many goals have our midfielders contributed this seasoni Premier league. Ceballos none, Xhaka one, Willock zero. Torreira don’t mention. Ozil one or so. Even assists don’t think any of them have up to 5 assists. I even prefer Tod Cantwell.
Thomas Partey has a buy out clause of £43 million, yet Arsenal offer £25 million plus a player. I don’t see it being Guendouzi, because that means Arsenal only value him at £18 million. What is the problem with the muppets running this Club that they want to haggle over a player, who can massively improve the Arsenal midfield like Partey? Without a buy out clause, he would be £70-80 million.
jon fox, Kroenke has nothing to do with this, as Arsenal has spent the third highest amount of money of any EPL club over the past 3 seasons.
We pay £43 million to Atletico Madrid, we get Thomas Partey yet Raul Sanheili, Ravi and Edu can’t manage it. What are Arsenal doing paying these incompetents?
I’m disgusted!
Ozziegunner , I rarely take extreme issue with you on anything but on your Kroenke comment, which I find naive for someone of your age and experience, I HAVE TO CHALLENGE YOU.
Do you or do you not think that a business owner is ultimately responsible for incompetant people who he appoints to do day to day running?
I do and very much so! IF Kroenke even cared at all OR even if he only cared for the financial health of his business and prized asset, he would never , repeat NEVER, have left the disastrous GAZIDIS TO RUN OUR CLUB FINANCIALLY ONTO THE ROCKS , AIDED BY FAR TOO COMFY, EYE OFF THE BALL WENGER for so very long after both should have been sacked.
I am massively dismayed at your naivety which I would never have expected of a man of your intellect. I find it sad and inexplicable.
CARE TO ANSWER MY QUESTION PLEASE, IF YOU CAN!!!
I totally agree jon. One thing I have never been accused of except by you, is being Naive. If you note my previous posts, I have stated ad nauseum that my biggest issue with Kroenke Sports Management has been their total ineptitude in selecting and maintaining the personnel on the Board and the senior executive, after David Dein was forced out.
I cannot understand as someone who has managed multi million dollar businesses, how a businessman as obviously successful as Stan Kroenke can allow such poor management performance and decision making at Arsenal FC.
The loss of David Dein caused incalculable damage to this great Club. To make things worse Dein still attends every game in his private box and looks down on the devastation!
We finally have a chance to sign an actual proven top class player. Stick with me on this one, but this signing could be in the same realm as the Ozil signing in terms of getting a proven winner and big game player (despite the ozil signing itself turning out to be a very mixed bag). This is the kind of player you stump up the money for. We were willing to do that for Pepe, but not willing to do it for Partey. If the club ruins this deal it will continue to show how Sanllehi is out of his depth and only knows how to do deals with agents he is close to. Arsenal NEED Thomas Partey. This could be our most important signing in years.
👍 👍 👍 👍
Ozziegunner,
Will say it again, as per Swissramble, AFC spends what it receives operationally!
So, no fans, basically no money.
stan the maN has not spend one cent ever, on any of his clubs, rams, nuggets, avalanche, and the rapids, not one CENT. This guy is so overleveraged on the rams stadium that the is no money to be spent anyway. No fans in US stadiums either.
Only way forward is to sell everyone and start over.
Not going to happen.
We shall see what is up in these next two windows, but my head tells me 6-10th place will become the norm.
Aaron, I don’t disagree with you. My argument has been that in the last three seasons Arsenal has been in the top 3 to 5 EPL clubs on transfer expenditure and player wages. Yet Arsenal finishes 8th.
My question is where has all the money brought in from finishing in the top four and competing in Europe for 25 years gone? Why are Arsenal paying over the odds for underperforming players based on its wage bill? Why has Arsenal got few player assets to sell high and upgrade deficient positions?
ARSENAL’S FINANCIAL AND PLAYER ASSETS HAVE BEEN INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED.
Remind me again why Arsenal left Highbury, spent a fortune on the Emirates, so that we can compete with the top clubs in the EPL and Europe?
Agreed total mismanagement and constrained by our move to the Emirates.
I wouldn’t put much stock in the rumours. They just don’t make sense. Guendouzi, for reasons not apparent to me, has a transfer value of more than 23m. If Arsenal can buy Partey for 45m (which seems cheap) they could recoup more than 23m by selling Guendouzi (again not my valuation, his attitude and diving drive me crazy)
Reality us none of us know what the h is going on.
Arsenal are scratching about like headless chickens, in not coming up with £43 million for Thomas Partey, a player who could transform the team
At the same time Arsenal are linked with Wilfred Zaha at how much and Joelson Fernandez at £40 million.
What the hell is going on when blind Freddie can see Arsenal need Thomas Partey, a quality DM and a CB?
45m pound for Thomas Partey is a good deal.
Also, Arteta needs to put more pressure on Pepe next season. He needs to work harder be more consistent in terms of performance
I like the idea of a 352 formation.
Tierney Luiz Saliba
AMN Xhaka Partey. Bellerin
Pepe
Lacazette Aubameyang
Signing Partey is a must. It gives us a lot of options in terms of selection
Sorry but you are wrong; Xhaka is not in the class of Partey and is not a box to box midfielder like Partey, who drops back to break up play and defend and then drives forward with the ball in attack.
I do agree that Arsenal need a specialist DM and another CAM would be beneficial if Ceballos doesn’t come back on loan, but Arsenal have AMN and Smith Rowe is returning from Huddersfield.
Response above to Emmaobi.