‘We are hungry to win the title again’: Arsenal technical director Edu reveals £45m Thomas Partey swoop was planned for SEVEN MONTHS as he targets the top after spending £90m this summer
- Arsenal signed Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid on transfer deadline day
- Partey has signed a four-year deal after his £45m release clause was triggered
- The club spent £90m to aid boss Mikel Arteta after winning last season’s FA Cup
- And Edu says the hunger is there to win a first Premier League title since 2004
Arsenal technical director Edu has revealed the club are ‘hungry’ for their first Premier League title since 2004 after completing the swoop of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey.
The Ghana international joined the north London side on transfer deadline day on Monday after they triggered the £45million release clause in his contract with the Spanish outfit.
The 27-year-old joined centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes, winger Willian, midfielder Dani Ceballos and goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson in joining the club in the summer transfer window as the Gunners splashed £90million to help boss Mikel Arteta following last season’s FA Cup win.
Arsenal technical director Edu says the club are hungry to win the Premier League again
The Gunners chief’s comments come after they wrapped up the signing of Thomas Partey
The club spent £90m to help boss Mikel Arteta following the side’s FA Cup win last season
And speaking to Arsenal’s official website, Invincible Edu claimed his side – having signed Partey after seven months of groundwork – are now hungry to challenge for the title with their new ‘quality’ additions.
‘One day I would like to show the fans how we work, or how we worked because if you saw my plan six or seven months ago when I did it with Mikel, Thomas was there already,’ Edu said.
‘So many things to do, so many meetings, we had to see how we were going to buy the player, if we had the financial situation to buy the player, the legal process, the financial process, talk to the player, talk to the agent, so there are a lot of things around this but in the end we did it!
Willian was one of the other signings brought in in the summer on a free transfer from Chelsea
Dani Ceballos joined for another loan spell from Real Madrid after a good end to last season
‘I think we improved the squad’s quality and physicality. If you see Willian, he brings us experience and a very special physicality in terms of speed. If you see Gabriel, he gives us a lot of physicality and presence.
‘Dani, quality. Thomas, physicality, quality and mentally he is very strong. But in the end if you see all these players we brought to the club, they are very good here [points to legs], but they are better here [points to head].
‘This for me is very important because when you talk to the players, they have a lot of ambition, they are excited and they are hungry to win a title again.’
The Gunners also brought in defender Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille in a deal worth £27m
Goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson was signed after Emiliano Martinez joined Aston Villa
The Gunners have not won the Premier League since they went the entire top-flight season undefeated 16 years ago, a squad Edu formed a part of.
The Invincible has now got deals done upstairs, including new contracts for captain and star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and youngster Bukayo Saka.
The north London side were also heavily interested in signing Lyon star Houssem Aouar, but the France international eventually decided to stay put at the Ligue 1 club.
The club also managed to tie star forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to a new deal
The club however struggled to move players on permanently, with goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and Sam Greenwood joining Aston Villa and Leeds representing the only such deals concluded.
Lucas Torreira went in the opposite direction to Partey to join Diego Simeone’s side on loan for the season, while outcast Matteo Guendouzi signed for Hertha Berlin on loan on deadline day.
Another Gunners outcast, Mesut Ozil, remained at the club but they are now seeking to re-open talks about ripping up his £350,000-per-week contract before the January transfer window.
The Gunners, it is understood, approached Ozil about reaching a settlement agreement for the final nine months of his contract over the past fortnight but the attempts proved unsuccessful.
Ozil is said to want virtually all the remaining £13million on his deal.
It is now hugely unlikely that Ozil will agree to an early exit from Arsenal before the transfer window re-opens in January.
UEFA have already confirmed the German’s omission from Arsenal’s Europa League squad, while Ozil is expected to be left out of the club’s 25-man Premier League party.
