‘I was like “how are we going to do this today?”: Thomas Partey tells the story behind his crazy transfer deadline day which saw him join Arsenal for £45m as he recalls being begged not to go by Atletico Madrid-obsessed chef while at dinner
- Arsenal new boy Thomas Partey revealed details of his crazy deadline day move
- The midfielder joined Mikel Arteta’s side for £45million from Atletico Madrid
- Partey was unaware the move was happening until late on the deadline day
- He also explained that a chef at a restaurant begged him to stay in Spain
Arsenal new boy Thomas Partey revealed that he was unsure whether his deadline day transfer would be complete in time following his move from Atletico Madrid.
The Ghanian finalised a £45million move from the LaLiga side in the dying moments of the extended summer transfer window.
Partey has been thrown into the deep end by Mikel Arteta, who has been a long-term admirer of him, and he has already featured three times since returning from international duty in mid-October.
Arsenal new boy Thomas Partey revealed details about his deadline day move from Atletico
The Ghanian finalised a £45million move from the LaLiga side in the dying moments of the day
Due to the nature of Partey’s last minute move, he explained the crazy details as he was unaware he was moving to the Premier League until late in the day.
‘I was not thinking of anything, I was OK I was talking to a friend that I train with to go and train in the morning and then my agent called me,’ he told Sky Sports.
‘He said “no, we have to go to this place to sign this paper” in case we have to sign some papers for you and you are not there, we will sign for you.
‘So in the morning we went there, we did that. Since we went out from the morning we could not come back home.’
Partey said that he visited a restaurant with his agent on deadline day in Spain, and the chef was begging him not to leave Atletico Madrid.
Partey said a chef at a restaurant in Spain begged him to not leave the LaLiga side
He added: ‘We went to a restaurant to eat and the chef was like “don’t leave us today”, I was like “what do you mean?”
‘He was like “today is the deadline day, do not leave us today”.
‘And I think my agent knew something about that and was like “nothing will happen don’t worry”.
‘So we went to sign the papers, we went to eat and I think they talked to Edu (Gaspar), and Edu said “no, we have to do this today”.
‘I was like “how are we going to do this today?” And we had to go now, now, now to do medical and that’s how everything happened.’
