Autumn reminds us of many different things — colourful parks, cosy days with a cup of tea under the blanket and, of course, soccer games all over the place. When it comes to the EPL they had a chance to make their teams stronger during the summer transfer window, and many of them have used this opportunity to find ideal candidates for backing up the current squad.
Our focus today will be on two teams, Arsenal and Southampton, and their completed summer transfers for the 2020/21 season. Let’s take a look at new faces we’ll see on the field for both the Gunners and the Saints.
Thomas Partey Joins Arsenal
Arsenal had got their hands on Thomas Partey, the 27-year-old midfielder, just in time before the transfer window closed. The news spread only moments after Atletico confirmed that Partey’s contract release clause worth £45 million was met by the Gunners.
Although Atletico stood strong on the release clause during the summer period, Arsenal managed to get to terms with Partey’s team and recruit him to play for the north London club in the upcoming season.
Arsenal was very fast to announce the transfer news on Twitter, by using the hashtag #NoThomasNoPartey followed by a great announcement video.
An interesting detail from this summer transfer period includes another move, but in the opposite direction — Arsenal sent Lucas Torreira on a loan to Atletico for one season. In other words, the teams just swapped two players for the 2020/21 season.
Rumour has it that before hiring Partey, Arsenal wanted to recruit Jorginho, a Chelse’s midfielder, but the transfer never came through. Nevertheless, Partey is known as a player with lots of experience gained in 188 matches for Atletico during the past five years, which will hopefully be useful in making Arsenal’s tactics more creative.
Theo Walcott Rejoins Southampton
Southampton is another team that happened to find the perfect solution for the season in front of us. Namely, the team has taken back Theo Walcott, a winger from Everton who started his career for the Saints.
During the 2020/21 season, Everton and Southampton are allegedly supposed to split Walcott’s £100,000-week wages until the player’s contract expires.
This 31-year-old who has appeared in only two Everton games up to this point will now have a tough job proving he’s worth the money. He most likely won’t find it hard to give his best on the team, as Southampton was the club where Walcott made his first soccer steps in 2005 when he was only 16.
In 2000, when he joined Southampton’s academy, Walcott got the title of the Saint’s youngest first-team player ever. He had made 23 appearances and scored five goals, after which he joined Arsenal and started his career off.
For the last three years, Walcott has been playing for Everton, but he seems very happy for a chance to play for his core team once again after all this time. Although other clubs wanted to recruit Walcott this season, he mentioned that he knew Southampton would be the winner the moment they showed interest.
Walcott also mentioned it wasn’t hard to decide which club to join this season, as Southampton would always be in his heart for giving him a chance at the start and making him a player he was.
Make sure not to miss the next game to see whether there will be any tears of happiness once Walcott steps on the soccer field for his beloved Southampton and proves the team’s young players how lucky they are to play for this team at the beginning of their careers.