I think it’s smart for us to keep both. We should be looking to build a squad that can challenge for 4 trophies and not be so quick to lose numbers. There’s only so much we can do in one transfer window.
Thinking in terms of overall squad and less of an individual basis of player out-player in, but still.
I think it’s smart for us to keep both. We should be looking to build a squad that can challenge for 4 trophies and not be so quick to lose numbers. There’s only so much we can do in one transfer window.
Thinking in terms of overall squad and less of an individual basis of player out-player in, but still.
For that deep CM role this season we had 3 squad places occupied.
Jorginho keeps his place and offers exactly what he did this season. Highly valuable squad player who did a great job for us this season. Available, reliable.
Partey I think was intended to play a major role this season. Based on the interviews Rice gave on joining Arteta always wanted Rice to be more of a box-to-box player for us rather than just sitting deep and screening. Partey was missing for us and we shouldn’t count on him being available next season, so Partey’s role needs replacing, but…
Elneny is going. This season he basically just occupied a spot in the squad. With him leaving we basically have an extra place being vacated. So let Partey take his place, then we just need to add one midfielder - much easier and less risky than securing two transfers and integrating more than one player.
Which means we need to replace what we needed from Partey, even though we should keep him.
So we get in a new midfielder with the caveat that they have to be good enough to be a starter job-sharing with Jorginho over the course of a season where we expect nothing from Partey (but keep him as a wildcard and only play him if and when available e.g. for more challenging CL and PL games).
Probably this means someone like Zubimendi is a target, and that transfer starts making a lot of sense.
I think it’s smart for us to keep both. We should be looking to build a squad that can challenge for 4 trophies and not be so quick to lose numbers. There’s only so much we can do in one transfer window.
Thinking in terms of overall squad and less of an individual basis of player out-player in, but still.
For that deep CM role this season we had 3 squad places occupied.
Jorginho keeps his place and offers exactly what he did this season. Highly valuable squad player who did a great job for us this season. Available, reliable.
Partey I think was intended to play a major role this season. Based on the interviews Rice gave on joining Arteta always wanted Rice to be more of a box-to-box player for us rather than just sitting deep and screening. Partey was missing for us and we shouldn’t count on him being available next season, so Partey’s role needs replacing, but…
Elneny is going. This season he basically just occupied a spot in the squad. With him leaving we basically have an extra place being vacated. So let Partey take his place, then we just need to add one midfielder - much easier and less risky than securing two transfers and integrating more than one player.
Which means we need to replace what we needed from Partey, even though we should keep him.
So we get in a new midfielder with the caveat that they have to be good enough to be a starter job-sharing with Jorginho over the course of a season where we expect nothing from Partey (but keep him as a wildcard and only play him if and when available e.g. for more challenging CL and PL games).
Probably this means someone like Zubimendi is a target, and that transfer starts making a lot of sense.