Dean Jones and Jack Collins discussed some of the latest Premier League transfer news during a recent edition of the B/R Football Ranks podcast and Jones spent some time discussing the possibility of Arsenal signing Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey during the show.
The Gunners have been heavily linked with a move for Partey in recent months. Back in May, The Telegraph reported that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta ‘has made signing a defensive midfielder a priority’ and they also claimed that the Atletico Madrid man ‘would like to move to Arsenal.’
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Furthermore, earlier this month, Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano declared that the Gunners are ‘trying’ to sign the Ghana international.
And, Transfermarkt has his value sitting at £36 million.
During the latest edition of the B/R Football Ranks podcast, Jones shared his thoughts on Arsenal’s chances of signing the 27-year-old midfielder, saying: “It’s still the case that they want Thomas Partey. Can they do a deal? Well, they’re going to have to get clever for him.
“As we’ve talked about on Instagram [and] the fact that they eventually got Nicolas Pepe out of the blue by managing to structure the deal over the duration of his contract. People do structure deals over a course of time, but not usually in the way Arsenal managed with that one and the amounts of money it was costing them. They’re going to have to do something similar, I think, if they’re going to get Partey.”
Jones then went on to claim that there is a “mini overhaul” going on at Arsenal at present and he listed some of the players who may be on their way out of the north London club, before going on to state that: “They want Partey to arrive and be the new boss of their midfield.”
Are you confident that Arsenal will sign Thomas Partey?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
Judging by Jones’ comments, it appears as though Arsenal do want to sign Partey, however, the journalist doesn’t seem confident that it will be straightforward for the Gunners to put this deal together.
He stated that he believes Arsenal are “going to have to do something similar” to what they did to sign Pepe from Lille last summer to secure Partey’s signature. As per The Daily Mail, Arsenal signed Pepe for a deal worth £72m in total, however, just £20m was paid up front and the remaining £52m of that transfer fee is ‘being paid in instalments within five years.’ This report from the Daily Mail claimed that the Gunners structured the deal in this way in order to ‘stay within budget.’
With that in mind, it appears as though Arsenal will have to be careful with their transfer spending and it may be understandable why Jones appears to believe that it will be somewhat complicated for the Gunners to secure Partey’s signature.