Exit interviews: Thomas Partey
Partey when healthy came straight back into Arteta's team for the run in but is he still part of the plan for 2024-25 or beyond?
Exit Interviews is a series where Scott and Adam share their opinions on next steps for select Arsenal players. The series will run through June.
The exit interview series continue with Thomas Partey.
Partey is another player on the bubble for Arsenal’s plans. He has a year left on his initial contract and it does not appear that there are any rumblings of an extension, with more smoke that Arsenal would rather see him leave than extend his stay.
He also came right back into the team during the run in playing midfield as Arsenal chased Manchester City to the final day of the season. This suggests that he is not totally out of the plans for the team.
Scott and Adam give their thoughts on the player.
Adam: It’s impossible for discussion about this player to focuses solely on football, that’s just where we are now.
The Ghanaian has become arguably Arsenal’s most hotly-debated player since the days when fans would insist Nicolas Pépé was being done wrong by Mikel Arteta (some still think that). Since this is my section of the blog dedicated to my opinion, I’d have to admit that I cannot view him through a football-only lens, and for that reason I’d like to see the end of his association with Arsenal Football Club.
On the pitch, the midfielder did offer glimmers of his quality this season, but of course his struggles with availability persisted. And this is while taking in a weekly sum of more than £200,000, meaning something like £12m is still owed the player before June 30, 2025.
These factors collude to create a really tough selling environment for Arsenal, particularly if he won’t go to Saudi Arabia. Whispers around that league this season insist it will be less busy this summer, but names like Partey and Casemiro have been linked with a move to the Middle East.
If a club from the Saudi Pro League will bite, could Arsenal get £10m? I think that’s a good question. There have been rumors about Napoli and Juventus sniffing around as well, but I’d expect a smaller fee from either of them, despite their stature.
Meanwhile, Charles Watts said Partey wants to stay. Will he block any move Arsenal makes?
Adam’s Verdict: I would sell, holding out for as much as possible but ultimately accepting anything that’s £5m and up and clears his wages.
Scott: I have a certain bias when it comes with Thomas Partey and it absolutely colors my opinion on him. When I write about him, I do try and set that aside but I can’t say that it doesn’t creep in from time to time.
It is a tough situation and one where IT isn’t talked about openly much because of the rules around anonymity in the United Kingdom for people accused of crimes.
I am in the United States where the laws and norms are different and it just rubs me the wrong way that this is hasn’t really been grappled with. I am not saying that the way it is done in the US is better it is just different and what I am used to. Protecting the rights of the accused and especially those not charged is a noble goal and one that perhaps should be further adopted but it does come with the trade off of limitations on others’ ability to exercise their speech rights. I don’t love how this creates a situation where there is this thing hanging over the team that is just not acknowledged.
The whole situation is a mess. It is a situation where famous athletes can be targeted with false allegations but there is also a culture where they are not told “no” often and can lead to abuse. The public will probably also never know to a satisfactory degree the details to be able to have certainty about the situation and will just have to live with that uncertainty.
I can’t deny that the accusations made against him make me very uncomfortable and have made watching Arsenal less enjoyable at times. Others may react differently, and that is completely acceptable, understandable, and equally valid. It just not the feelings that I have with the player and situation. When he was on the sideline injured it almost made things easier for me as a fan because the moral questions of what to do as a supporter could just be pushed aside.
As for his actual play, the first few years with Arsenal when he was healthy and available he made a strong argument as one of the best defensive midfielders. This year when he came back into the team he looked like the latest injuries had sapped him of his speed and ability to recover in transitions.
His overall production is good but he is down from the elite at progressing the ball. He used to add more of that value with his passing and combined it with enough defensive work to not leave the team open on transition. It was a combination that worked well and helped Arsenal climb from 8th to 2nd.
This season Arsenal had to adapt to him not being available and I think perhaps stumbled on a better overall option.
The difference now between Jorginho and Partey when defending transitions has narrowed. Jorginho has never had the athleticism of Partey but that has forced him to rely more on positioning and anticipation, it can make him look bad on occasions but overall he does a good job, especially with the safety blanked of Arsenal’s defenders behind him. Partey on the other hand still to my eye has not adapted to his current athletic ability and that means that he is behind the play or in sub-optimal positions that he cannot recover from.
Maybe he gets back that burst (maybe I wouldn’t bet a ton of money on it) or adapts better (maybe but hard to do at the highest level) and he is closer to the version of himself when he was 27-29 and he can be a major part of Arsenal next year. I would still rather that some other team took that risk.
Scott’s verdict: I would love to sell and take whatever fee was on offer. I would be willing to cancel the remainder of his contract if it really took that.