PARTEY EXIT CONFIRMED, WHAT NEXT?

EXPLORING THE DECISION

The decision has been made… Thomas Partey, after one good season of fitness, has said goodbye to Arsenal because he didn’t like the offer Andrea Berta put in front of him.

My take, in the cold light of day? Probably for the best.

There’s a very long history of Arsenal players getting the ‘sign da ting’ treatment from the fanbase, only to do exactly that—then absolutely tank.

Theo Walcott, when he broke £100k a week, never looked like a value deal.

Mesut Özil putting his signature down on a deal that was grotesque—because Ivan Gazidis couldn’t stomach losing another big player on a free or near-to-free deal—dropped off so hard and fast, it should be written about in football contract negotiation schools.

Then there’s Auba. He put in a stunning performance as club captain, looked unstoppable, got the big £300k-a-week Mesut deal… and his game fell off a cliff. He was out of the club not long after.

Thomas put in his best minutes ever in his final season. He was very good. Unexpectedly so, considering the dip in his ability to run. We’ll lose a player who is cool as a cucumber under the pressure of a high press. This team will miss having someone who can pass through the lines like butter… but we won’t miss a player who’d probably be on the sidelines by October with a thigh injury. Your body doesn’t get better with age. Players seem to be good at holding things together when there’s future money on the line, but the pattern is baked with Thomas—he’s brittle, and his lifestyle probably doesn’t help. We all know the story of Arsenal sending minders to stop him doing what his surname tells him to do.

That’s a huge salary off the wage bill—and likely a loyalty bonus as well. We’ve already replaced Partey with Zubimendi, a best-in-class 6 who does most of the things Thomas can do, but with a more robust body. We also have Nørgaard, who can hopefully offer us some destroyer cover and, again, more availability.

The one thing we have to be really aware of: we are losing two extremely experienced players in Jorgi and Partey. Champions League players who’ve played at a very high level for a long time, with extremely technical brains, who understood the system Arteta plays very well. Rebooting the midfield is going to come with some bumps. We just have to hope those bumps can be addressed in the very long preseason we’re working towards.

We also have to accept that Thomas—and most of the midfielders we sign—are super unique. There aren’t a load of Thomas-like players. You can’t find Jorginhos all over the place. That means the system has to be shifted to absorb new players with new talents. Arsenal will look different next season. Our midfield has to have a different flavor because we’re not replacing like-for-like… we’re doing something new.

My hope is the new players give the attack something faster to work with, that we don’t need to see Ødegaard dropping too deep, and that we can see something equally dominant—but with more superpowers.

Not much to report on Arsenal-wise. The striker stuff is quite repetitive at this point. The Rodrygo story will likely be a summer saga. There’s nothing fresh to sink our teeth into.

Chelsea have signed their second forward of the summer, picking up João Pedro from Brighton. Decent player, no doubt, but it’s hard to watch what Chelsea are doing and make sense of it. They’re also buying Jamie Gittens from Dortmund—another winger. It’s like they’re harvesting young players… but the bad kind of harvesting, where they spend a lot of money, make the players worse, then sell them for a lower fee. I can’t, for the life of me, understand why they don’t develop some of the players they already have. Nico Jackson has all the tools for the Premier League. Madueke is another player who looks like he could explode under the right coaching. It’s madness.

There’s some chat that Liverpool could be in for Alexander Isak. I don’t really understand how Liverpool would be able to fund another mega signing—even with a league win prize pot that was quite big. Newcastle would ask for £150m, and the player would want £500k a week. Why would Newcastle sell after getting back into the Champions League? It seems very far-fetched to me.

Final piece of news: Fabrizio reckons Arsenal have terms agreed with Mosquera. Our €14m offer was rejected, but the deal should be done for €20m. Tidy piece of business for a player who was attracting interest from a lot of big clubs. Also, quite a bit cheaper than Huijsen. Hopefully, he can be just as good!

Ok, that’s me done. Check out the early bird podcast Johnny and Matt recorded this morning.