I think Arteta's response was very diplomatic and didn't really hint that we were looking to renew Partey's contract. He simply said "the intention is very clear" when a reporter asked him if the intention was to keep Partey. That doesn't mean that the intention is to keep him but rather that Partey and his camp know what our plans are.
I've made my thoughts clear previously but good god, enough is enough with this. Personally, I am going to be quite pissed off if we have to watch this rapist play for the club past the end of this year. I'm tired of having to differentiate between players on the field and off it, especially with the group of great characters that we have other than him. He's a stain on our reputation and we need to move him on. It's very clear that a decent amount of Arsenal fans and some folks here have never known women who have been victims of sexual assault/abuse and understand the uphill battle they have to face to get any semblance of justice, especially against offenders with a position of status/wealth. I'm tired of hearing the excuse of "he hasn't been charged and he's falsely accused" when we have seen multiple, unassociated women accusing him of the same things in different countries and its very clear that the local laws make it incredibly difficult to bring a case against offenders like him, even if there is video evidence like we saw in the Greenwood case.
There are plenty of great characters and amazing stories to rally around and defend on this Arsenal squad. He ain't one of them. The sooner we can disassociate from this serial sexual predator, the better. I'm willing to root for this team to achieve great things at the end of this season and resigned to the fact that he will likely play a part in that, but at no point will I ever root for him. You need to take a good long look in the mirror if you want him to succeed, especially if it's to rattle opposing fans who are rightfully slating him and us. Think of how you would feel if a woman you knew had been a victim of someone like him and has to sit back and watch him get lauded every match while she deals with the trauma he caused. It's disgusting. I can somewhat understand the pickle the club is in with libel laws and navigating the legal system and potential litigation from him, even if I feel like we shouldn't be playing him still. But the frat boy culture around supporting athletes like him is a bridge too far and reeks of the MAGA invective of "sticking it to the libs" that has poisoned my home country.
