Arsenal.comMorning all.
Yesterday it was about the return of Leah Williamson, today it’s about Thomas Partey. Other than seeing Jurrien Timber back training, is there a better sight to see ahead of Tuesday’s fixture against Nottingham Forest? Of course he won’t start on Tuesday but I hope he’s in the squad and if the situation allows, he’s on the pitch at the end. His return is such a massive boost at this stage of the season, at least I think it is. He’s the guy who moves the ball from back to front quickly, his long legs can move when he’s fit and firing on all cylinders and we’ve missed him a lot.
I think back to Arsene Wenger’s second ten year reign and wonder if he’d have experienced more success had the likes of Abou Diaby, Tomas Rosicky, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo not been injured. Or Mathieu Debuchy, Theo Walcott to name a few. Last season the injury to William Saliba knocked the stuffing out of the team and possibly played a part in our League challenge fading away.
You can probably tell, I’m thrilled to see Thomas Partey on the brink of a return. Whether he’s still at the club by the time next season kicks off though is another matter. I strongly suspect he’ll be gone. Not only him either.
The summer is irrelevant right now though because there’s four months of this season to play. The first half of the season was good. A few decisions went against us in matches but the grim results and performances over the festive period was purely down to the manager and his players. Hopefully though, that’s our blip done and dusted for another year. Injuries too because we’ve already had more than our fair share.
In other Arsenal news yesterday, the club announced that our current Director of Football Operations Richard Garlick, will take over the role of Arsenal’s Managing Director in summer when Vinai Venkatesham leaves the club. I never really know what these grand titles mean when it comes to what those who fill them do but I’m sure it’s important. We don’t get to see what really goes on behind the scenes but a club doesn’t run itself. All we get to see is who goes out, who comes in and what goes on on the pitch.
Lastly, if you want to catch up on how the Arsenal under 21 team is doing, their Premier League 2 Division One game away to Wolverhampton Wanderers is available to watch for free on Arsenal.com and the official app tonight. Kickoff is at 7pm.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning all
Is it April. 1st?
Klopp to leave Liverpool at end of season!
Now that is news!
Excellent news Wavy…
Klopp to be replaced by Steven Gerrard?
Morning Rico and all,
As much as I like and respect Wenger, he was set in ways and I don’t think he would of changed too many players around, once he chose a position for that player he stuck to it.
Rico, I hope your enthusiasm for Partey doesn’t prove to be misplaced. Too often his fitness has let him down and his injury record is close to abysmal. Quite often we have seen him carelessly lose possession in dangerous positions, some times leading to goal for the opposition.
Perhaps he will be like a new signing, but like all new signings he will have to learn to integrate with his team mates.
It was notable that there wasn’t any serious bids (that we know of) for Thomas from the Saudi Pro League in the summer, just as with Tierney, their history of never ending injuries has pretty much eroded any transfer value they may have had.
I’m not sure that anyone would offer Arsenal a transfer fee next summer and Thomas would want his contract paid up if we wanted to sell him anyway so we may as well let him play out his contract to 2025 as that seems the best way to get any value for him.
It would also probably be the most prudent financial policy taking into consideration FFP
If Arsenal do in fact bring in Zubimendi then he’d just be a straight replacement for Elneny who surely must leave next summer?
Therefore we could squeeze another year out of Jorginho and Partey in 2024/25 allowing Arteta some real quality to come off of the bench.
Thomas Partey is on £160,000 per week, that’s £8,320,000 per year, he signed a five year contract in 2021. The arithmetic is simple, it won’t be cheap to keep him, it won’t be cheap to buy out his contract, it won’t be easy to find someone willing to pay a decent transfer fee and pay those sort of wages.
I wonder what Arsenal will do if we get a late bid for Ramsdale, say £40million?
So I guess if it’s going to cost us the same amount to keep him as it is to give him away for free, then we might as well keep him.
Kev, in today’s market I would be absolutely amazed if we got a bid anywhere near £40 million for Ramsdale.
True Cicero, but if Newcastle can ask for £18million for a 31 year old injury prone forward then there’s always hope.
Morning Geoff, I disagree re Wenger. How many players did he move around in his time. Midfielders turned defenders, wingers switched often, strikers as wingers etc etc.
Cicero, 4 months is all we need from Partey, and a lot of rotation to manage his fitness. If we can get that from him and him to be fit at the end of the season, it’s win win I think.
Personally, I hope Ramsdale stays. He’s still our best keeper imo.
A Saudi club would pay for Partey.
Yet there has been no hint of any interest in him from anywhere. Maybe if he gets through uninjured to the end of the season there could be an offer from one of the Saudi PIF clubs.
Wasn’t there interest back in the summer but he didn’t want to move at that time?
“According to Tuttojuve, Al-Ettifaq and Al Ahli are both interested in adding Thomas Partey to their squads. They go on to state that Arsenal might pocket £35 million for the Ghana international to join one of these Saudi teams.”
There may well be one more hump in the Partey to Saudi road, there is a limit on the number off foreign players Saudi clubs can sign and many of them have already hit that limit.
But a few seem to want out too.
11pm
1st February
The clock is ticking.
6 days 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Man City are looking ominously good at the Toilet Bowl.
There are no new players. Is anyone going to leave? It’s boring not to see Arsenal in any Cup.
Tickets for Porto fans to watch Arsenal-Porto are sold out; the Porto Stadium is also practically sold out.
Porto have quite a good home record I believe but don’t travel very well.
Might be a very close tie…
Morning
New post up