Transfer was done in advance to let him play a final game.

Welcome Thomas Partey

Yes, it is an interesting turn of events. I suspect you are right, its no coincidence.

Do you think the dinosaur outfit will fit Thomas Partey though?

Yes, but to be fair I don't think anyone was expecting more than Parety and Aouar. So if (IF) we sign Partey it's still one out of our two main targets. No idea why we'd be leaving it this late if rumours are true. Then again, no idea about the way we do business at all most of the time.

Spanish journalist Antonio Ruiz of Cadena Cope (who to my knowledge is as good as Spanish sources come) saying Arsenal have communicated to La Liga the intention of paying Partey's release clause.

Decent drummer though and you can't always get what you want

Would it be cynical to suggest that we have left it just late enough that the paperwork and legalities cannot be sorted out in time and they can then say "we tried".

We've been waiting for the go-ahead from Kroenke who has spent the last two weeks looking for spare change behind his many couches.

Yes, Charlie Watts claims we've triggered the release but Mick Jagger says its not true.

Ornstein now saying the same thing as Charles Watts and others. This one might actually be happening.

That’s slightly unfair.

They are 100 million in revenue down and clearly are trying to stretch a budget. If we sold players maybe we could have signed both targets and of course it makes sense to negotiate as much as possible if you are in the red.

One thing that makes a little bit of sense with leaving Partey so late is that he has a release clause. As long as we know he wants to join, all we have to do is trigger the clause, no negotiations needed. So it makes sense to try more difficult transfers first, if we knew we had the money to pay Partey's release clause.

Of course. Spot on.

I do wonder if football fans have ever gone through the purchase of a house or property and the negotiation involved.

Go in high to start off with and leave nothing to chance !!!,,,

Well, it could also be the other way around; Aouar was our top target and since we couldn't afford both him and Partey we waited until the Aouar deal was off because that's when we knew we had money to trigger the clause...

Fair comment. I think the frustration is the amount of waste of space players we have who are more happy to not play the game they love as long as they get their wages than accept a slight reduction and actually play football.
I do wonder about the Cédric and Marí deals, we made both permanent this summer at a cost of £7m plus two players wages (which could be £3-4m a season each)
Only getting Guendouzi and Torreira our on loan is frustrating. I cannot wait until we can finally wipe clean so much if the dross in this squad and start to reinvest those wages in to proper players. The squads building over the last 5 years has been absolutely terrible

Possibly, ie we only had 45 million to spend. Try and get Aour realise they won’t accept less than 60 million so sack the dinosaur and sign Partey instead.

I think what Arteta has done with the team is nothing short of staggering. I was at the Emirates last season when city smashed us to pieces in 10 minutes and our players gave up and it felt like the end. Now it feels like we have a future and direction.

Fans will need to get behind him because Partey alone won’t fix our problems and it will take more time. Until he gets more creativity in and around the box we won’t make a push for the title. We need a De bruyne type. He’s done remarkably well and the way he’s determined which group of players can contribute and which can’t seems quite similar to when George took over and ditched the older heads for people who would graft for him. He’s still stifled by the decisions of the previous regimes but really I think we have a manger there who could return us to our previous glories if our fans back him.

He is a good drummer...

As if anybody on this forum would ever forget any deficiency in the club!!

I'd be interested in knowing the total cost of having the mascot. There are many people who would do it for a nominal fee or even volunteer to do it at home games. I don't know all the facts but it seems like they didn't explore all options in keeping it.

Jesus how much enlightenment have you got in your life!

People are taking the mascot stuff too seriously

Btw I’ve always been suspicious about someone who would take a job like that.

Harry the Hornet at Watford.

Captain Blade at Sheffield United. Pete the Eagle at Crystal Palace. Sammy Saint at Southampton.

I would hope they’d do CRB checks to ensure they don’t give the job to a convicted paedophile. But apart from that it’s a totally unskilled job. All the post holder has to do is be willing to put on a dopey green dinosaur costume, let Junior Gunner members score penalties against him in a fake goal on the side of the pitch at half time, and be an observable prat when the teams go out on the pitch.

What else is there?

Pretty much it.

I’m not sure the job requires someone who can split the atom.

I never got the reason why it’s a dinosaur either. Need to create some outfit somehow that depicts a cannon

250k a week. He must be mustard right ?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... id-for-51m

Guendouzi gone.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/matteo-gue ... erlin-loan

Stephen hawking would have beaten that guy in a 100m sprint.

He is.

Metro reporting we’re signing an 18 year old Swedish forward. Sensible to buy cheap youngsters with potential.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 75625/amp/

Sorry to say I've never heard of him until today. Don't think he's played a first team game in Sweden yet, so I'll assume it's an academy signing for now. He's a 6ft3 striker who's supposedly got good technique and is really good with his back to the goal.

Always fun to have a swede in the youth system to follow. Most of you probably don't remember Kristoffer Olsson, he was a central midfielder that was here from age 16-19 I think. Only had one league cup appearance for the club, but is now playing in Russia, and is one of the best players in the Swedish national team.

This from the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... id-for-51m

Sky has been saying for some time now that we activated Partey's release clause.

See the rolling banner at the bottom of the page.

Now showing as breaking news..........

In other news, WHU and Jack Wilshere have agreed to cancel his contract by mutual agreement. Assuming it's cause he's struggled with injuries for so long.
All the best to him from now on.

Aubameyang, Partey, Gabriel, Leno.

At last we have a solid spine........

Brings back memories of Seb Larsson for some weird reason.

Saliba possibly on loan to Fulham?

https://apple.news/AL0eHL3IEScKUFFlL4namjg

They are also regurgitating the story about Jack Wilshere being released by West Ham because they have nothing to talk about. Seems gross and tasteless. How much do you need to speak about it

I don’t get the impression that Ceballos is a number 10 type. Partey is box to box. I can’t second guess what Arteta will do but if I was to take a punt I would say Partey would probably be a replacement for Xhaka or ceballos in the side and we would probably keep the same formation this season

He says he has been fit for months but isn't getting a chance. Hard to believe that he is only 28. He is younger than DeBruyne. It's a shame the injuries were so damaging.

Reports that Walcott is returning to Southampton. It’s gone 10.00 pm so the transfer window closes in less than an hour. If the Partey signing is finalised, wonder if Arsenal are employing their official website news staff to confirm it tonight? They should do considering the size of the worldwide fan base.

Or perhaps it’s not happening and Top Gun has wasted his money on the shirts?