Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey has been encouraged to reject a move to an Arsenal side who look set to miss out on Champions League football again by former Ghana international Derek Boateng, speaking to JoyFM.
From the outside looking in, Partey’s apparent desire to swap Atleti for Arsenal certainly raise a few questions.
Like ‘why?’, for example.
The Ghanaian powerhouse would hardly be the first Diego Simeone favourite to turn his back on the Madrid-based giants but surely a move to the Gunners would be something of a step backwards at this stage in his career.
Improvements have most certainly been made at the Emirates since Mikel Arteta took over from Unai Emery but, despite an impressive 2-0 win away at Wolves on Saturday, Arsenal are still seventh in the table and ten points adrift of fourth.
And Partey, if he does make a potential £45 million switch, will have to sacrifice his place amongst the European elite – at least, for the time being.
“I will not advise him to move to Arsenal right now because he is a Champions League player and with the look of the Arsenal team right now, they are not ready with the kind of players they have,” says former Fulham and Eibar man Boateng.
“They are playing very well but you can see the inexperience hurting them and with the way the Premier League is going right now, it is going to be really tough.
“If he wants to move, he has to move to a team that plays in the Champions League otherwise he will lose everything.”
According to 90Min, cash-strapped Arsenal cannot afford to pay the £45 million fee required to sign Partey up front, and would ask Atletico if the sum can be spread out over a number of years.
Furthermore, the under-fire Matteo Guendouzi and the reborn Granit Xhaka could apparently be sacrificed to raise funds.
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