Welcome to the Arsenal Partey, Thomas, better late than never, I guess!
And so, we finally get one out of two of our men that we targeted for this transfer window…
Although both would have been nice, Lyon stamping their authority down meant it was unlikely that Houssem Aouar was going to be an Arsenal player the day after deadline day, given that talk was rife and negotiations seemed to be going well, it is a shame that we haven’t been able to land him..
Despite a fairly quiet window for us compared to Chelsea, as always Arsenal left it late, but they finally bagged the signature of Thomas Partey -a player that has been linked with our club nearly every single transfer window- and they did it by triggering the £45m release clause for him with barely hours to go, it was a race against time as to whether we would be able to finalise the deal. But of course, we did the dealings in time, got the deal sheets and the negotiations sorted and, bang on 11pm, Thomas Partey was unveiled as an Arsenal player.
So, we have managed to add Ceballos (on loan), Gabriel, Saliba, Willian (free), Runarrson, Mari, Soares and finally Partey to our ranks this transfer window, with a couple of players going the other way and considering the financial difficulties, we have done well but we could have done it better and in much quicker time.
But the best thing about this is that if all else fails, then the next transfer window will be opening in around two months, so maybe Aouar will be in our ranks come the end of January, if not then I definitely think we should go in for him and get him next summer.
I have no doubt that Partey will do well for us, but having plied most of his trade in La Liga it may be a little bit of a difficult transition for him which is to be expected, but either way it is a great show of intent from our club and about time too! Gooners?
Shenel Osman