Why I feel Arsenal shouldn’t sign Thomas Partey

It’s indisputable that in the short term, Thomas Partey would improve Arsenal massively. In my opinion, I don’t feel he fits what the club’s long term vision should be, for many reasons.

As much as Arsenal fans don’t want to realise it, Arsenal won’t have much money to spend on transfers this summer. To buy the players they need they’ll have to be smart by getting players in cleverly structured deals and make sure they don’t sign players who are potentiallyrisky

He has a release clause around £44 million, which Atletico Madrid have made clear is the only way he’ll be let go this summer. Release clauses are usually paid in lump sums so spending £44 million liquid cash on one player this summer doesn’t feel sensible.

He has quite considerable potential risk attached in the long term. If Arsenal do sign Partey he will require quite significant financial outlay, regardless of how the deal is structured. He will likely be given a 5 year contract, taking him to June 2025 when he’ll be 32.

This means that for years 3,4 and 5 of his contract he’ll likely drop off in performance, be overall past his peak years and will have little resale value. Arsenal spending £44m liquid on one player and only getting 2 years of top performance from him doesn’t make sense to me.

Also Arsenal’s squad is quite unbalanced. It consists of players who are past their peak and depreciating in value every year in Auba, Ozil, Luiz, Sokratis and Lacazette along with lots of players who haven’t even started their peak years yet in Saka, Martinelli, Saliba, etc.

They also don’t have many first team players between the ages 23-26. This shows Arsenal’s need to buy players in the middle age bracket so they’re aren’t constantly losing money on signing players 27+ and can also develop into the team along with the younger players.

Although signing Partey in the short term could potentially propel Arsenal to challenging for the Champions League places next season, I feel with the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea likely to heavily strengthen in all areas this summer....

... those two spare UCL spots left behind by Man City and Liverpool could be out of reach even with a perfect summer window.

I feel signing Partey makes me wonder what the long term plan is at Arsenal, is it to be competing for the Champions League positions?, or is it to eventually go for the Premier League again?

I do feel, in a few years time the latter is achievable but only through intelligent squad planning, being ruthless and avoiding potential risks.

In my eyes, signing a 27 year old when there are options on the market (like Manuel Locatelli) who are younger, cheaper, will increase in potential resale value instead of decreasing and can also develop into a better player than Partey, would not be the correct move.

End of thread.
Feedback appreciated