Sigh. Here we go. With little other club news to report, and even less Arsenal-related World Cup news to report, would-be journos are suggesting that Arsenal are ready to offer Thomas Partey and £20m to pry Ismaël Bennacer away from AC Milan and bring him back to Arsenal after his brief spell in the youth set-up didn’t work out. It must be said that Bennacer has impressed with the rossoneri, boosting his valuation to something close to £40m. Still, the idea that we’d swap the midfielder who is arguably our most irreplaceable for a relatively unproven player is enough to suggest that the silly season has indeed begun in earnest, and several weeks early to boot. Then again, with little else to delve into (except maybe the pseudo-retirement of Messi to Miami), let’s have a look at this little rumour, shall we?
First things first, these rumours started with Calciomercato, which I won’t link to. Those with an affinity for birdcage liner but tired of The Mirror or El Metro are encouraged to hunt down the original “source”. That said, we do have to admit that Partey is both evaluating his 401(k) and assessing his injury record while also looking at Miami real estate. For as good as he is—for as irreplaceable as he is—all involved have to admit that his shelf life looks to be shorter than that of a jar of mayonnaise left out in the hot sun. He’s 29 until he’s 30, let’s put it that way.
Along similar lines, his deputy, Albert Sambi Lokonga, has not yet earned the right to be referred to as ASL and is more likely to go out on loan than he is to displace Partey from the starting lineup. As a matter of fact, should Partey go down, Arteta is more likely to reconfigure the lineup than he is to start Lokonga, moving Xhaka back to a more defensive position, and we are all still recovering from the PTSD of seeing Xhaka try to shield a backline without two-footing someone for the heck of it whilst Jon Moss reaches around his prominent posterior to produce a red card.
With all of of that in mind, should we be looking at Bennacer? At £40m, he might prove to be more-vital to our aspiratoins than the more-sensational (in multiple senses of the word) Mudryk, who might cost quite a bit more while offering quite a bit less. Yes, we do need cover for Saka and Martinelli, and Mudryk could conceivably offer that…but we don’t know how well he’ll manage the leap from the Ukrainian Premier League to the British one. We do have waiting in the wings (aha…see what I did there?) Reiss Nelson and Marquinhos, each of whom has shown in fits and starts that they can contribute. There’s also Vieira, and Emile Smith-Rowe should soon be back from injury.
With all of that in mind, we’d be wise to seek reinforcements in defensive midfield, and Bennacer might just be good enough to bring in—but not as part of a trade-deal that sends Partey away. Perhaps we can convince AC Milan that Lokonga or Elneny is Partey. Failing that, a straight transfer would make much more sense even if that does mean we’d be splashing out something closer to that £40m. Should we be able to secure his services, we could even look to recoup some of that by selling Partey (whose contract doesn’t expire until June 2025) for a decent fee, unloading his rather-large £200k per week salary along the way. Partey’s been vital to us, but we’ve seen enough of ageing players on large wages leave on a free transfer in recent years.
We’ve craved a vital, dominant defensive midfielder for decades. Partey has slaked that craving, but he’s saddling up and sizing up the horizon. Signing someone like Bennacer, someone who at just 24 fits Arteta’s profile and is just starting to come into his own, makes sense of multiple levels. It makes more sense than a less-expensive move for someone like Danilo, who’d have to make a massive leap from Brazil’s Série A.
What do you think? I assume we’re in agreement that we shouldn’t offer Partey in a sign-and-swap to get Bennacer. Do you rate Bennacer enough to make a January move for him? He wouldn’t be cup-tied for Europa League, for one thing. He’s familiar t osome degree with the club and the Prem…but would he be better than Lokonga, Elneny, or a re-deployed Xhaka? Enlighten me in the comments-section below, will you?
