Arsenal in contact to sign £50m “monster” who could see the end of Partey

Arsenal made it abundantly clear to the rest of the Premier League this season that they aren’t going away anytime soon.

Despite their title bid spectacularly collapsing at the end of last season, Mikel Arteta’s side dusted themselves off and managed to push Manchester City to the final day this year, and while they still came up short, there were improvements across the board from defence to attack.

However, one of the Gunners’ stars last season, Thomas Partey, played little to no part in 2023/24, and based on recent reports, the club are in contact with the player who could replace him this summer.

Arsenal transfer news

According to a recent report from transfers expert Fabrizio Romano via GIVEMESPORT, Arsenal are interested in signing Everton’s star midfielder Amadou Onana and have already made contact to be “informed on the player’s situation.”

Romano claims that while the contact isn’t concrete at present, the North Londoners are fans of the Belgian international, although they may have to be quick if they want to bring him to N5 as he is “appreciated by many, many clubs in England.”

The Italian does not mention a potential price for the former LOSC Lille ace, but a Football Insider report from May suggested that he may be available for as little as £50m as the Merseysiders look to stay on the right side of PSR regulations.

It might be a challenging deal to get over the line, but given his impressive performances for the Toffees and Partey’s waning influence, Edu Gaspar and Co should be doing all they can to get it over the line.

How Onana compares to Partey

Now, when comparing Onana to Partey, it makes sense to use the Belgian’s performances from this season and the Ghanaian’s from 2022/23, as he has played just 882 minutes of first-team football this season, and it wouldn’t be an accurate representation of his output when at his best.

With that said, the first thing to note is that neither player is particularly prolific, as in 37 games this season, the Everton ace scored three goals and provided one assist, while in 40 games last season, the Gunners’ midfield general scored three goals without providing a single assist.

So, with raw output a poor barometer to compare the two midfielders, how do their underlying numbers stack up against one another? Well, it’s a pretty comfortable win for the former Lille “monster”, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig.

For example, while he comes out second best in some metrics, such as progressive passes and carries, ball recoveries, and passing accuracy, he comes out way ahead in most others, including shots and shots on target, tackles and tackles won, aerial duels won, blocks, errors leading to a shot, miscontrols, and even the number of times he’s dispossessed, all per 90.

Another area in which the “complete” 22-year-old, as dubbed by Kulig, comes out on top is availability.

Since the start of the 2020/21 season, the Dakar-born star has missed just 11 games, whereas the man he could replace has missed a whopping 72 games, which comes to an average of 18 games out per season in that time.

Ultimately, while Partey is an incredibly talented footballer, Onana’s more impressive underlying numbers, availability, and age make him the far more appealing prospect at this time, and so Edu and Co must do what they can to bring him to North London this summer.