Italian giants could beat Arsenal to Thomas Partey due to Champions League football

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Usually a drawn out transfer chase will result in a club getting their man after a while, but if it goes on for too long then it suggests that something is wrong.

Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey has been linked with Arsenal for months now, but a recent update from Marca does make it sound like the move won’t happen.

They quote La Gazzetta dello Sport in saying that Arsenal and Juventus are both desperate to sign him, but Atleti won’t let him go for anything less than his €50m buy-out clause.

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That could be too much for Arsenal, but Juventus are a richer club and they have a large squad with plenty of players who could be sold to raise those funds, so immediately they appear to be in pole position.

The other problem is that Partey wants to play in the Champions League and he knows that he’ll always get that at Atletico, while it’s pretty much guaranteed at Juventus too unless something goes drastically wrong.

The report does point out that Arsenal would be willing to offer Partey €220k a week so clearly they can make him an attractive offer, but that means nothing if they can’t find a way to meet Atletico’s demands first.

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