Edu says Arsenal’s owners were ‘so excited’ at the prospect of signing Thomas Partey and has revealed the deal has been in the works for over six months.
Arsenal signed Ghana international Partey from Atletico Madrid on transfer deadline day after paying his £45million buy-out clause.
Partey, 27, made 188 appearances for Spanish club Atletico and helped Diego Simeone’s side finish third in La Liga last season.
Arsenal initially targeted Houssem Aouar over the summer but their attentions turned to Partey on deadline day and they completed an impressive scoop before the window shut.
Edu says Arsenal’s deal for Partey was ‘six or seven months’ in the making and has revealed the club’s board were excited at the prospect of bringing him to the Emirates.
He told Arsenal’s official website: ‘One day I would like to show the fans how we work, or how we worked because if you saw my plan six or seven months ago when I did it with Mikel, Thomas was there already.
‘So you see how many months we had to try to find the right player for the club.
‘So many things to do, so many meetings, we had to see how we were going to buy the player, if we had the financial situation to buy the player, the legal process, the financial process, talk to the player, talk to the agent, so there are a lot of things around this but in the end we did it!’
Asked when he became confident that Arsenal would sign Partey, Edu added: ‘When I received the green light from the board and the owners.
‘To be fair, it is a huge investment for this moment which we are in now and of course we need the green light from them.
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‘When I showed my plan to them, they were so excited, they understand the plan and pressed the green button and then I felt very, very confident because it is not easy to invest a lot of money in this period of time.’
Arsenal have enjoyed a promising start to the 2020-21 season, winning three of their four Premier League matches and knocking Liverpool out of the Carabao Cup.
Mikel Arteta’s side return to action on October 17 with a trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City.
