Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz has been a long-term target for Arsenal and the Gunners may sell Thomas Partey this summer to fund a move for the Brazilian midfielder.
The North London club attempted to sign the 25-year-old as part of a £25m deal with Villa on deadline day during the 2022 summer transfer window but having failed, the North London side have retained their interest in the Brazilian star.
Centre midfield is an area Mikel Arteta wants to strengthen ahead of the new season and Luiz is a strong option to make a move to the Emirates Stadium.
The Aston Villa star is Arsenal’s top target for the role and they may sell Thomas Partey to make that happen, reports Football Insider.
The Ghana international’s contract is set to expire in June 2025, which makes this summer the ideal time to cash in on the midfielder.
The Gunners are willing to listen to offers for the 30-year-old once the transfer window opens and the Premier League giants have set an asking price of between £20m and £25m for the player.
Partey is a talented player but has had severe injury issues this season which has only allowed him to play a total of 449 minutes in the Premier League during the current campaign.
Arsenal journalist says Gunners will consider Thomas Partey sale
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his latest Daily Briefing column, Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has explained that the North London club’s stance on Partey will be the same as last summer.
“Thomas Partey’s future is certainly going to be one of the big talking points of the summer. Last summer Arsenal were open to selling Thomas, but no tempting offers came in. They weren’t pushing him out of the door or anything, but given his age, his poor injury record and the fact he was one of the club’s biggest earners and was into the final two years of his deal, they would have cashed in if a good enough bid arrived,” Watts said.
“In the end, that didn’t happen, so they were happy to keep him around and I think this summer will be exactly the same situation. He will have one year left on his contract and so should a good bid come in, they would consider it. But I don’t think they will actively be trying to force him out.
“He’s not played that much since returning to fitness, but he showed against Chelsea on Wednesday night how good a player he still is when fit. So it might be they just decide to keep him around for the final year of his contract before allowing him to leave on a free. Juventus have been consistently linked, but I’ve never had it confirmed that those links are genuine. There was certainly interest from Saudi last summer, but Partey wasn’t overly keen on that. He really wanted to stay at Arsenal.”
lol, not going to happen