Reported by Anthony Onifade.
“I’m ready to give my all and help this great club.” Arsenal’s new signing, Thomas Partey, gave his first official interview on Arsenal TV discussing his ambitions for the future and why he chose to join Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal revolution.
“This is a great club, it is one of the biggest clubs in Europe and it’s a club that deserves to be aspiring for greater things and I think it doesn’t happen in a day, we have to work hard, we have to make sure we are back to where we belong and make everyone feel happy.”
Arsenal completed the signing of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey in a late, cut-throat deadline day move in which the Spanish club were only informed of the move, after Partey’s £45million release clause was triggered within the last 12 hours of the window, making him the most expensive Ghanaian footballer of all time.
The 27-year-old midfielder claimed he ‘could not even sleep’ on the night of the transfer also saying the Arsenal fans “were crazy over me, I received a lot of messages saying ‘join the club or we are not sleeping!’ – it was a great feeling”.
While many may perceive the move as a panic-buy from Mikel Arteta, due to his lack of quality options in midfield, Partey has in fact been one of Arteta’s priority signings throughout the summer window, with club struggling to free up enough funds to trigger his release clause. Only until the final day of the window did Arsenal take the plunge and get their main target.
The 27-year-old Atletico academy product had established himself, as one of the key cog’s in Diego Simeone’s rigid and well-disciplined midfield over the past few years, since his return from Almeria on loan in 2015, putting in some consistent and dominant showings, excelling both on and off the ball.
Ever since legendary midfielder Patrick Vieira’s departure from the Gunners in 2005, have the club desperately desired a player accomplished both with and without the ball, and the capture of Thomas Partey – a player with huge international and European pedigree – means Arteta now holds a player ready to come in and make a telling contribution from the off.
