Fabrizio Romano has confirmed the reports that Arsenal have had a change of heart over key midfield player Thomas Partey.
The Ghana international has been an important player for Mikel Arteta’s side in recent times, but many will have expected him to be leaving at the end of his contract this summer.
Partey’s age and injury record made him an obvious candidate for the exit door, but he’s had a really strong season this term and has done better to stay fit.
According to Romano, this now means Arsenal want to keep Partey and are working on a new deal for the 31-year-old, who is also assessing all the options available to him…
??? Arsenal are prepared to offer Thomas Partey a new deal with different salary structure compared to current one.
Thomas, assessing all options on the table with Arsenal now keen on keeping him. pic.twitter.com/4u3q7eNLuJ
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 25, 2025
Partey could surely have a lot of clubs interested in him this summer, and it seems he might need to accept a different salary structure if he stays at the Emirates Stadium.
While it’s not made explicitly clear in Romano’s X post above, this surely means the Gunners are trying to convince the Atletico Madrid man to take a pay cut.
This would make sense for an ageing and injury-prone player, but we’ll have to wait and see if further details emerge soon.
Arsenal looking to strengthen midfield, but Thomas Partey still has a role to play
Partey is a fine talent who would be hard to replace, so it makes sense for Arsenal to try to keep hold of him for a bit longer.
Even if Martin Zubimendi is expected to join AFC this summer, there’s still the likely departure of Jorginho coming up in the months ahead.
Arsenal would likely be short of depth in the middle of the park if both Partey and Jorginho left at the same time, and only Zubimendi came in as a replacement.
If a short-term deal on more realistic wages is possible, then keeping Partey seems like a no-brainer for Arsenal.
the absolute level.of disrespect and racism shown towards Thomas Partey by tie Brotish press including this article is ridiculous.
He is easily our Third best player after Saka and Rice so this disgusting approach to where we keep him or not is not appreciated by real fans who know just exsgrly how important.t he is to tue Arsenal team.
When Xhaka left he was no t replaced and we failed to win tje league.
Arteta wants to bring in a slow and technical player in Zubimnedo which is again not what we need. we should be targeting Bruno. easily a far better fit.
bit of course Arteta is obsessed with buying defensive players which is why we always fall short every season. For me if we do t win the Arteta would be on extremely thin ice at Arsenal.
he has consistantly failed to address what the team needs for several years now.
he has spent 800m to give us no strikers, no back up wingers for Saka resulting is his first serious career injury, no comp.for Odegaard resulting in his worst season at Arsenal, no LCM to compliment Rice.
it beyond criminal