Arsenal stole £45M man from under Chelsea’s nose after Frank Lampard gave go-ahead

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Chelsea manager Frank Lampard was prepared to give the green light to Thomas Partey’s acquisition prior to his move to Arsenal, according to Matt Law for the Telegraph.

The Blues are without a natural holding player within the squad. Jorginho is a distributor from deep, while the dynamic N’Golo Kante is far more of a box-to-box midfielder.

As the Telegraph’s Matt Law writes in his weekly Chelsea briefing, Declan Rice was the player that Lampard wanted, but his £80M asking price was beyond what the Blues were prepared to pay.

MORE: England international remains top of Chelsea’s transfer wish-list despite £80M asking price

After it became clear that Chelsea were not going to sign Rice, as per the Telegraph, the Blues boss was prepared to give the go-ahead for Thomas Partey to be signed from Atletico Madrid.

As reported by Sky Sports, Arsenal then activated Partey’s £45M release clause. It’s unclear whether the Gunners had become aware of Chelsea’s interest, but they wasted no time getting the deal done.

Partey is another potential Rice alternative to be crossed off the list for Chelsea. It remains to be seen how many more will have to be before they just pay West Ham what they want.

More Stories Declan Rice Frank Lampard Thomas Partey

1 Comment

  1. This is BS, we (AFC) activated it in the last hour or even minutes according to some reports. Nothing was stopping Che from doing the same so how did we get in there before them, if anything we would’ve lost out for leaving it so late so no I don’t believe Che intended to move for him as they probably seen Kante as a similar player although with lesser ball playing skills. They intend to get their top target by waiting ime, and then the player will know he’s important to them. Rice will be a Che player next season if that transfer report was true. I’d say they like Partey allot but Che were strongest when they didn’t settle for alternative options, that’s the difference between the top top clubs and the next clutch of teams throughout Euro. Partey is AFC’s top target nabbed – Che it was someone else because -he’d be at Che if he was a top target of theirs. Sorry for the long comment I usually moderate to shorten them but can’t be a***d right now.

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