As reported first by Charles Watts of Goal, Arsenal are making a deadline day attempt to sign Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid.
The 27 year old has a €50m release clause which the Gunners have informed La Liga – who manage them – that they are willing to pay it in full.
Arsenal’s legal eagles are working on the nuts and bolts of the deal right now, which would see the player undergo a medical in Spain because of the current difficulties with international travel because of Covid-19.
The Guardian report that the Ghanaian international will sign a four year deal with wages in the region of £250,000 a week.
It’s also being reported that we’re set to sign 18 year old Swedish striker Nikolaj Moller from Malmo in deal worth around £500,000.
It does look as if things are happening folks. Remember, keep up with all the latest on the transfer deadline day live blog – and we’ll publish official confirmations as and when they happen.
Pretty shocked we wouldn’t pay for Auor but are paying a release clause
I think it was always the case of aouar or partey. M glad we are going for partey over auour. This guy is going to be huge for us.
So it took us all summer to decide this? Because we really could have used Partey from preseason onwards.
I can’t help but feel Aouar was our number one target and Partey backup. But I think Aouar got a word in his ear from a big, big club in the last week or so that they will come for him next summer and had a change of heart.
To be fair, I don’t want some prick who is “resigned” to joining Arsenal. He can go fuck himself. Unless we sign him next summer.
It’s much less about which player we chose vs. the fact that we didn’t want to stump up supposedly less money for Auor paid in installments vs. paying almost 50m immediately to trigger the release clause. It seems pretty clear that we believed Auor was willing to join or we wouldn’t have bid for him in the first place.
You were quite adamant we wouldn’t be doing this. Very surprising move, but if it gets over the line… A massive addition!!! EXACTLY the player needed.
Bc we’ve heard nothing but the serious cash issues the team has. This means for everyone’s complaining about Kroenke he clearly is injecting cash into the club. Otherwise we don’t have the finances for this.
I think that was the case all along. We might have personal agreement with Partey else we would not have activated his RC. May be funds from Emi and others have pushed us for Aouar but it couldn’t materialize as we did not have enough to pay for both
I don’t think we were ever after both. There’s no evidence for that as far as I can recall.
Yeah, that would almost be showing horrible unsightly ambition, clearly not becoming this wholesome self sustaining club and it’s puritanical spendthrifts.
I don’t think we were ever going for both. If we had enough why leave it so late for Partey?
I think we couldn’t make the asking price for Aouar as we thought he’d be cheaper, and changed to the second choice target.
I always say it – Lyon are really difficult to buy from. Jean Michel Aulas only ever sells for top dollar. We’ve always had a tough time dealing with him.
I think it’s gamesmanship. We could have been asking Atletico to drop the price since it’s a bad market otherwise we could activate the clause last minute and screw them over. Even if it saves us 1million, that’s still a lot of money at the end of the day.
But the deal isn’t over yet, we could end up with nothing and have all this back fire.. lol..
He’s the French Danny Levy.
moving players on is a big first before jumping the gun on a signing.
Hullo.
I think that implies that Lyon’s asking price > Partey’s release clause (assuming that our budget allowed us to buy one, rather than both)
I think that’s a fairly safe assumption
Because Aouar himself no more wants to come. He’s been saying he will stay. A guy who really wants to go put in a transfer request.
Let Aouar go stay on the bench in Madrid.
And then we loan hin after thst ?
Report said Aouar want to stay, not we dun want to pay
Well, we don’t know what the terms of any transfer – if there is a transfer – are. It’s highly unlikely we can pay the reported release clause in full up front (unless there’s a last minute sale of some sort which is not impossible). I suspect that it will be an installment deal like most of last Summer’s deal were. Anyway, we’ll know one way or another soon.
Read the report. It says Arsenal have informed la liga they will pay the release clause in full.
250k a week wages!? Is that correct? Wow, if true, we are really going all in for this guy. Haven’t honestly seen enough to comment on him, fingers crossed. Quite exciting.
£100k/week less that we’re paying mesut.
Has anyone mentioned his wages yet? ?
You might need to pour yourself a stiff drink and take a seat, son. ????
I’m happy we are getting atleast one because although we need both, we can’t do without atleast one.
That’s why we went to Atleast Madrid for this last-minute deal.
Don’t fret. My coat is already on.
Reality check, guys: you see the club in a brighter light than it really has. Aouar is not interested, end of the discussion. Maybe the way Özil is treated makes some think twice…
Just quit it, man. We all know you like him.
Did you read the story regarding his brother ballsing the deal up? Nothing to do with ozil, stop the agenda it doesn’t help anyone.
Stop the (pro) agenda? That’s rich coming from a section of the fan base that pours on the Ozil hate at every opportunity.
Oh, give it up Alex, sheesh!
I can never understand how someone supports a player over a club. It’s just weird to me. Especially one who has done fuck all for the last 5 years.
Five years now is it?
So helping us win the FA Cup in 2015 and 2017 (was going to mention 2014, but you said five years) is fuck all, is it….?
Clearly you’re another one who enjoys our current horse-shoe midfield ‘creativity’……
Aouar doesn’t want to play for the Arsenal. Keep up.
don’t understand the downvotes, its a perfectly valid question! several credible sources stated that aouar was our first target (makes sense, he’s younger and more creative minded, what we lack right now). but we refused to pay their 45m + bonus asking price. that payment would have been paid in installments, certainly less immediately heavy on the pocket than a full, immediate 45m payment that we’re doing for partey now. i’m chuffed partey is joining but i’m so surprised and confused. if the plan was to get him all along why wait till the frenzy of deadline day? atletico’s stance… Read more »
Willian and saka are both creative mids, plus Dani can do a job there too. We needed a strong ball winner so that we can play 3 in midfield and finally start to dominate games and create chances.
Absolutely agree with this. Sometimes a signing isn’t just about what that player brings individually but how they allow others to play to their potential.
We needed to save the cash from letting Gunnersaurus go…
Not to be Debbie downer but we balked over 10 mil on aouar(supposedly installments) and now willing to pay up front 45 mil for partey. Sounds like a another bullshit rumor
I wanna believe he was a decoy. The way stuff played out, the confidence in Arteta that something will happen, the long time ago agreement with the player, and the pursuit of player since 2018. They didn’t want to have Atleti negotiating thereby increasing price just coz it is Arsenal. Brilliant play here
Gutted about Gunnersaurus but as long as he’s let back in for the Partey then it’ll all be hunky dory!
Maybe GunnerSaurus was actually Partey. I mean he is a big guy. Can’t well do both jobs can he?
You never see them both in the same room tbf…
Gunnersaurus is also never around during international breaks… Too many coincidences.
No doubt another one of Stan’s cost cutting exercises – although I dare say Biggles will be delighted with the ‘raised funds.’
it seems like we had saved up 49.+++ mil and gunnersaurus wages just pushed through the release clause.
I heard Partney didn’t want to join a club with dinosaurs. Had to go.
*Partey – damn you autocorrect
Emergency Arsecasts extra tomorrow on what could be a very goodly morning??
I am so excited that my wife is calling me crazy. If other news are true, Kola and Soka will also leave so we can get more fund. Will we use them not sure but definitely good for our wage structure. And another window will open in Jan and that fund can be used to strengthen team
I don’t think we can say that £250k a week is good for our wage structure…
Fuck the wage structure.
We’re supposed to be Arsenal Football Club, not Harlow Town.
Well I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it. I’m about to lose control but I think I like it.
250K wages?
What’s happening?
Market forces mate.
Now perhaps people will stop slagging off Wenger for his ‘expensive poor investments’ – (unless you want to talk about Mustafi – which, admittedly, was Wenger’s biggest mistake)
That’s reported though I dun believe that. Whenever there is report of Arsenal transfer, there always ballon up the fee that we pay for incl unachievable bonus like Willian & Saliba cases. But report down our sale that not incl the bonus etc,like Martinez case
+1. The media tore us to shreds while reporting about Willian’s wages (which were combined with other fees/bonus) but when it came to Thiago Silva’s wages, they were shown minus the fees/bonus. Everyone was talking about how Silva took a pay cut to play for lampard.
At 36 I would hope so …
Might have the potential to rise to that number in later years but does seem unlikely from the initial get go
Incredible cost and wages, but hopefully he is exactly the player that Arteta wants to take Arsenal back up the table. One has to think that Partey has the tools and abilities necessary to allow us to play comfortably and securely in a back four, thereby increasing our ability to create more upfield.
We’ve got plenty of tough fixtures ahead, starting with a wounded City who’ll be out to make a statement after the break — we need to be ready.
Another one moaning about the wages. ?
I mean… people spend days, weeks and months complaining that the Kroenkes don’t spend. Then they do, and everyone complains anyway ? To get the best players you need to pay ridiculous wages, otherwise we can just stick to what we have/had.
Who said anything about Kroenke spending here?
That money has come out of the club’s piggy bank, not Kroenke’s.
We’ll add salt to the wound (injury).
Midfield options of Partey, Ceballos, Xhaka and Elneny sound so much better than Ceballos, Xhaka, Elneny.
+ Willock.. which isn’t saying much atm. He has a long way to go.
I’d wager with two work horses behind him (Partey and Elneny); Willock may actually contribute a lot more in the attacking third. Doesn’t shy away from his defensive duties as well, and covers a lot of ground himself. Hopefully would like to see him more often, and as well Willian to be more central so Nelson can get more playing time out right.
“?[@AitorGomezR] After paying Thomas Partey’s release clause, Arsenal decided to withdraw Torreira’s loan offer to Atletico Madrid. The club will only accept a permanent transfer and wants to put pressure on Atletico in the last hours of the transfer window. Deal in stand-by!”
Now, that’s what I call a bossmove
??
In Futures voice, F### them hoes!
If that works and makes up for, say, half the cost of Partey, I will go as far as calling it genius. After all, Atletico have been playing with us all summer long.
So long as we get a good fee for him — I can guarantee you Torreira will be worth exponentially more after a season playing for Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. I’m down with the harshest of negotiating tactics, just so long as we don’t bully ourselves out of millions of pounds!
LMAO if true! A loan with no obligation bro buy never made sense
If true, I love this energy from us
It would be pretty tasty to get one over on the club of Simeone, Suarez and Costa
Checkmate, Atletico
As reported first by AFC_Bell
Partey is just what we need.
I wish we could add Emi Buendia (23) from Norwich
Maybe we will still have a Partey in the Nic of time after all! (i’ll get my coat)
I’ve desperately needed to see a solid poo for a while now. I think I’ll be ok.
There’s a lot of shit everywhere you look today.
I feel like this has been so long in the works some of the excitement had worn off, but I do remember how surprised/sceptical I was when we were first linked to him because I felt like he could easily be expecting to play Champions League football for a team better than us. Exactly the kind of player to get us back in the big time, although a bit of creativity just ahead of him wouldn’t go amiss either. Hope this gets over the line!
http://www.lemonpartey.org
The Partey seems on after all; but I’ll remain a doubting Thomas until he lifts up the shirt.
Well, that’s the defensive element of the midfield sorted – hopefully. If you’re going to ‘build from the back’ then you could do a lot worse than signing Saliba, Gabriel and Partey. Kudos to Arteta if he can make this happen, because he is having to shuffle his pack with only the club’s money in a tight budget to play with. It wouldn’t have hurt Kroenke to stump up the money for Aouar- – but then he apparently doesn’t want to play for Arsenal (unlike someone I could mention) so fuck him him. Actually fuck Aouar and fuck Kroenke. But… Read more »
I think you’ll probably find that Kronke has guaranteed the money for Partey, there’s no way we could afford this otherwise. But everyone is fixated on how we have a rubbish owner so don’t want to believe it.
Well, yeah, picking up a fucking pen and signing your name to money being spent that’s not yours when you yourself are an eight time billionaire.
I don’t know how he does it.
Party I’ll prefer
With many fans wanting more a creative player aouar than a Partey they don’t seem very happy. Also with Gunnersaures leaving it is not an happy moment.
But I can tell you Partey will help us in having regular party. I wished more for Partey over Aouar as he has more experience and a player type we don’t have.
I hope ESR now evolves well with Saka also taking the creative responsibility.
Now will watch all Partey videos on YouTube, something to do in this internull.
COYG!!!!
Özil. Well…
To the tune of sister sledge ‘We are family’ by Sister Sledge
“WE HAVE TOM PARTEYYY
HERTHA BERLIN HAVE MATT GENDOUZI”
CHORUS AND FADE OUT
Credit goes to Sister Sledge
Or in the words of the immortal Coolio: “Ain’t no Partey like a Thomas Partey ’cause a Thomas Partey don’t stop.”
Or something to that effect.
We’ve gotta fight for our right to PAAAAARTEY!!!
Never a truer word spoken.
Thanks, Stan. Oh, hang on, this came out of the club’s money, not yours. As you were, you tightwad.
winner.
£250k/week oooof…
FFS, will you lot stop going on about the fucking wages.
You buy quality; you pay quality. Simple as that.
i just listened to the pod and I think you guys made this happen
250k – it’s a lot
Panic buy.
It is a lot but many have been saying that he is world class and he is likely looking for that final significant contract so I guess we have to pay it to get someone of his quality. Otherwise we buy someone who isn’t as close to being the finished product. It’s a trade off. That said, if my info/maths are correct, and we can loan out or sell the 4-5 fringe [for lack of a better word] players, we save a fair amount a week: Torreira on 75k, Sokratis on 90k, Kola on 100k, Guendouzi on 40k. Total is… Read more »
Gunnersaurus had to be sacked so we could sign Partey? Gunnersaurus must have been on some wages!
Anybody else notice Willian sliding into center midfield after Pepe came on, on Sunday, almost looking like a 4-3-3…. scored 2 goals almost instantly and looked far more dangerous as soon as it happened – add in Partey in lieu of Elneny/Xhaka and I think that shapes up very nicely
Clearly he was the second choice option. It’s a matter of prioritising structure or creativity. Looks like we went for creativity, got rejected and now we’re going with structure.
There’ll be plenty of 1-0s this season I think. I’m really hoping there’s space for Emile Smith Rowe in the squad this season now. He was excellent by all accounts at Huddersfield. A friend of mine who supports them said he was miles better than everyone else in the games he played and was their most creative outlet. Hopefully he stays fit and shows that with us too.
It looks like we’ve folded and are going to give in to Athletico. Good. All that brinkmanship was bollocks. The €50 million could actually be a bargain: if this guy takes off then his value could double over the next few years.
It’s nice to see the club show some real ambition. Let’s hope we can get this deal over the line by 11pm
He’s 27. His value is never going up
If he has a great season it will.
4-year deal for a 27 yo 50 mil player.. on 250k for hin to hold us to ransom in 2 years’ time?
Pleasd take that Pessimism to Daniel Levy land
He’s right. The business end of things will come back to haunt us as has Saliba/Pepe this summer with 20m already spoken for. Plus wages supposedly off the books with Ozil but then compounded with new Auba deal and then with Willian at 220K These are all related. Easy to be happy about new signings but they have impact if deal is poorly concluded. If we panic buy at 50m mark, a) We could have got Aoaur b) We will struggle to level things with little outgoing. Thus far income looks like 40=m with Martinez then maybe 2 sub 10m… Read more »
Dude
please don’t let Aoaur be your new Mahrez.
Let’s Partey!!!
I actually don’t fancy Aouar.
1/ He only turns up whenever he wants to. Massive attitude problem.
2/He seems to choose us as a desperate option, wants bigger clubs
3/ 60m is too expensive for a 1-season wonder 22 year old French prospect
yay for a partey! but let’s wait for it to be official guys!
This should be a good signing. After this I want us to go and get Cantwell. I think under Arteta he can be as good as Auour, he’s English and with the guys we have already, the future of England is Arsenal. Plus he’d be about 20m.
Any outgoing news, looks like Kola is off, but so many to get out, plus rumours Saliba was going on loan. Guenduzi just gone. That’s one down.
I believe most of this, except 250k/week. That sounds crazy high.
Not sure why you got the thumbs down here.
Well only get rid of the 350k waste of space next year, had to cancel mkhitaryan 200k just to get rid and we already have Auba and Willian on mega wages.
I thought we were supposed to be cutting back on the wage bill because we were paying champs league wages in the europa league!
I really hope this is a lower basic wage with heavy bonus incentives if true.
You know what would be the ultimate shithousery? Not only should we rescind Torreira’s loan possibility and shaft Athletico, but we should also freeze Partey out of the starting line-up alongwith Ozil.
Lol I was kidding. Jeez, some people don’t have any sense of humor.
Some people have got to learn there is a difference between others lnot having a sense of humour, and there being nothing particularly which they hVe sis which is particularly funny
If we pay full sum for this player, good on football side of things but again a bad move business side that will weigh us down. We look clumsy in market. Piddly increases on a transformative player like Aouar from 32-36m when in reality we need to be putting down at least 40m mark plus add ons. Now that ship looks to have sailed bc Edu and company are inexperience believe we have leverage when in reality we do have CL and Lyon have Barca keen on Depay so are not likely to be as desperate to repeat their gaff… Read more »
I’m not sure if we have to pay the whole fee upfront if this transfer does go through. Almost all transfers are done on an installment basis (like ours last Summer) so perhaps if Partey does arrive we’ll get him on tick? I doubt Atletico will change their stance on a loan for Torreira so I can’t really see them softening on Partey’s terms after all this time, but anything is possible I guess. The ticking of the clock sometimes changes attitudes. As things could still happen in either direction, it’s a little too early to take a financial overview… Read more »
Isn’t it a “release clause,” meaning we have to pay the money up front, to La Liga, who then pass it on to AM?
Would like to know if we had settled on Jorginho (just posted on the liveblog) only for Lampard to force us back onto Partey … but transfers at the deadline are never clean and simple.
Just a note to say also Aouar and Partey fulfill very different functions in midfield are not comparable but for sale price. where Aoaur is transformative in that we may be able to run more effectively a two prong inverted triangle with Ceballos and the Frenchman flanking either of Elneny or granit at base, Partey is more a workman addition at deep end which may mean we stay in a traditional triangle with Ceballos on his own up top (albeit maybe Willian can cycle in if we need to invert) BUT then the question to ask is do we need… Read more »
There are a few reports that he’s undergoing a medical. Make of that what you will. There’s still time to complete a deal so we’ll have to see what happens.
Let Aouar Partey begin.
Hah – wikipedia have him as a defensive midfielder for Arsenal
The priority for Arsenal in the midfield is an athletic defensive midfield, who can also progress, i.e. carry the ball forward. That profile has been missing from our midfield for so long. Creativity is one thing, but you can’t put a defence under pressure unless people are running at defenders – that it why Saka and Pepe make things happen. But we need players who can progress the ball through the centre too. Partey could allow us to play a three man midfield. The modern game is increasingly about these types of high intensity players. If Partey can, as billed,… Read more »