Arsenal: Thomas Partey perfection has it’s monetary limits

Arsenal was gunning for a cool £45m move for Thomas Partey, but if Atletico Madrid gets their way then Partey becomes financially impossible… and stupid.

For weeks now, Arsenal (and many other clubs) have been gunning for Thomas Partey. The Atletico Madrid midfielder has become the standard-bearer for athletic defensive midfielders who cover the ground and do the dirty work to make the defense’s job so much easier.

He’s been linked to the Gunners for years, long before the recent uptick in interest from everywhere else in the world as well. Only this time, the reports of his £45m release clause came with. Meaning that his move to the Emirates could be secured with very little negotiations and a set price.

Hard to beat that. And Atletico Madrid know that it’s hard to beat, so they are now actively working on raising Partey’s release clause to over double what it’s currently at.

According to Goal.com, the Spanish side is working on a new deal with Partey that will see his release clause jump up to £92m. Which, and this shouldn’t need to be said, is too much. Way too much.

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For that much money, Arsenal could sign Marcel Sabitzer, Orkun Kokcu, and keep Dani Ceballos. Essentially giving their midfield all the creativity and goal threat it could ever hope to need.

Or they could get Thomas Partey.

Of course, the big stipulation here is that Partey has to also want the move. Atletico Madrid don’t just get a new deal. Partey has to sign it. And if he does sign it, well, then he never wanted to move to the Emirates in the first place. It’s that simple.

That’s all this comes down to. If Partey wants to move away from Spain, all he has to do is wait and the suitors will come knocking. If he doesn’t want to move, those knocks weren’t going to stir him anyway.

Now we have a new storyline to follow. Will Partey sign a new deal and destroy all hopes of coming to the Gunners midfield? If so, we need a back-up plan, and there is no back-up to Thomas Partey. Just alternatives, who play the midfield quite differently.

It wouldn’t be a complete end-of-the-world scenario if he were to stay put, but it would certainly suck something fierce. I’ve been getting way too hyped up about a Partey-Sabitzer-Granit Xhaka midfield for this to end well.