A sad day for Tomiyasu : A dark day for Arsenal Football Club

Good morning, this is going to be a tough blog to write today. I recognise the seriousness of it, but also that this isn’t going to be easy for some readers. If you don’t want the Thomas Partey news, you can stop halfway.

I want to start with a player who I am genuinely sad to see leaving the club, and that’s Takehiro Tomiyasu. Yesterday, Arsenal announced that they had come to a mutual agreement with the Japan international to terminate his contract, which ran until 2026, with the option for another year.

He’s been out injured since last year, and he played just a few minutes last season before something else went wrong. I know people get frustrated with injured players, and sometimes there’s justification for that. Maybe the lifestyle isn’t right, maybe there’s a lack of application or professionalism, but that’s not the case here. Tomiyasu is a model pro, who has worked as hard as possible to come back and represent this club with distinction again.

So, my worry is that a decision like this tells us something about the seriousness of his injury issues. He has been out for over a year now, and wasn’t due to return until the end of 2025 at the earliest anyway, so when any player is missing for 18 months you can’t help but be concerned for their future. I don’t know if his career is in the balance, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case, and that’s why his time at Arsenal has come to this abrupt end. If there was a chance he could return to his best condition, I don’t think there’s a world in which he’s leaving because of his quality.

It’s such a shame because I really believe he’s a top class player, and the ability to play in any position across the back-line made him pretty unique at the top level. It’s so rare to find someone who can do that, and it’s so sad that the injuries have had such an impact on his time at Arsenal. On Instagram he said:

“After 4 unforgettable years, the time has come for me to say goodbye to this incredible club. Obviously, I have got many things to say, but the thing that I want to tell you guys the most is just thank you for the love you guys gave me.

“ARIGATO and all the best, Tomi ”

So, all we can do is wish him the best with whatever comes next. Whether that’s another club, a different league, or something else entirely, we’ll find out in due course, but I hope he finds happiness again. The idea that because he’s a highly paid footballer this hasn’t taken a toll on him is such myopic thinking. It doesn’t hurt, of course, but money doesn’t incubate you from sadness, mental health issues, and the disappointment that comes with not being able to do something you love and are brilliant at. I wish him well.

So now, if you want to duck out, I understand.

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THOMAS PARTEY CHARGED

Yesterday, football’s worst kept secret was made public when Thomas Partey was charged by the Met Police with rape and sexual assault. As per their announcement, there are five counts of rape, and one count of sexual assault. Two counts of rape relate to one woman, three counts of rape relate to a second woman, and one count of sexual assault relates to a third woman. The offences are reported to have taken place between 2021 & 2022.

The first thing to say is that we are dealing with serious crimes here, and victims who have suffered something devastating in the moment, and likely still suffer to this day because of the kind of impact this crime has. I realise that we live in an online world that leaves much to be desired, but anyone – Arsenal fan or opposition fan – who uses this as point scoring for their own agendas, or for bantz or anything like that ought to be viewed with outright contempt and treated accordingly.

It is a hugely sensitive and emotive issue, and one which – unfortunately – will be difficult for many people to deal with as it is so prevalent in ‘real life’ too. I would ask that any discussion of that in today’s comments respects that and the experiences that too many have endured when talking about it.

There’s also a need to respect the process here. When this all broke three years ago, it was immediately clear who the ‘unnamed Premier League footballer’ was, but his name could not be mentioned for legal reasons. That meant, under UK law, we couldn’t say anything about him in relation to the arrests. There’s a good explainer here, but ultimately it boiled down to the fact that anything said might prejudice the case. It’s been difficult, moderating discussion and comments across the platform, but justice is far more important. And when I say difficult, I want to be clear it’s very much a trifling problem in comparison to the alleged crimes and what the victims might have endured. Even now, it’s important that how it’s discussed before it gets to court doesn’t impact proceedings.

In their announcement yesterday, the Met Police say: We urge responsible reporting in line with guidance from the Attorney General’s Office. Editors, publishers and social media users should take legal advice to ensure they are in a position to fully comply with the obligations to which they are subject under the common law and Contempt of Court Act 1981.

So what can I say? Well, as an Arsenal fan for as long as I can remember, it’s terrible to feel angry and disappointed with the club you support, but that’s where I am this morning. Thomas Partey wasn’t just accused of these awful crimes, he was arrested – on multiple occasions – and played for Arsenal Football Club while out on bail. I understand the contention of innocent until proven guilty, but that’s applicable to courts of law, not places of employment.

Is there another industry where, if someone was arrested for rape and sexual assault, they would be allowed just carry on as normal? Arsenal had a duty of care to all their other employees, and beyond, and decided his talent on the pitch was more important than anything else. I also understand the suggestion that if they had suspended him from the start, they would, in essence, be identifying him as the ‘unnamed Premier League player’, but I don’t believe that stands up to complete scrutiny. Not least because everyone knew anyway.

The boos on TV. That horrendous ‘She said no’ song, sung at every ground. Football fans using rape for bantz, disgusting on every level, but Arsenal facilitated this by virtue of allowing Partey to continue to play. For our final home game of the season I sat just above the Newcastle fans. For the duration of the 90 minutes, they booed him and sang that song, and it’s a stain that has followed the club we all love for years now.

But maybe, and it’s a very tiny maybe for me, there’s plausible deniability in the ‘We didn’t want to identify him’ explanation. However, I don’t think the club have a moral leg to stand after what happened this summer. His contract was expiring on June 30th, the perfect ‘out’, let it expire and move on. However, they spent all of June trying to come to an agreement with him over an extension.

From the top down, the owners, the executives, the manager, HR, the legal team, with the full knowledge of what he had been accused of, decided he was worthy of a new contract. That’s utterly shameful. Sporting expedience was more important than doing the right thing. And let’s be clear, what we’re aware of in the public domain doesn’t come close to the depth and breadth of information the club have about the situation and the incidents he’s been charged for. Even with that, not one person with authority said ‘This is not acceptable for Arsenal Football Club’. Where are the non-negotiables?

The deal broke down over money, nothing else. The fact his profile was still on the arsenal website after the news broke yesterday tells you that they didn’t know this was coming. They were blindsided. There might be a moral vacuum, but they’re not stupid. The reporting kept referencing ‘Former Arsenal player …’ yesterday. It could very easily have been ‘Arsenal player … who was recently handed a new two year deal even though the club knew what he’d been accused of’.

How sad. How depressing. Make no mistake, this club does wonderful things for the Arsenal community, locally and globally, but in this instance they’ve left an indelible stain on the history of an institution we all love and are invested in. It’s really is a scandal, and the brief statement last night was – while understandable given the legalities of the case –  a convenience they can hide behind.

Beyond that, I don’t know what else I can say. I have been asked why we didn’t do the story on Arseblog News. I struggled with that, to be honest. I felt like the right thing to do was to cover it here on the blog. Had we posted the story on the news site, I would have turned the comments off because this case is sub judice, and the news was everywhere else anyway. I don’t know if I got that decision right, but I feel ok with it this morning. It was not, as I have been accused of, a decision made to provide cover for Arsenal or anyone else.

Others have made the point that the Premier League itself needs to provide some guidance here. Currently there are no protocols in place when it comes to these kinds of situations, it’s left up to the clubs themselves. I think that’s something which needs to be put in place when players are accused of the most serious crimes, and I hope that’s an issue that’s addressed as a matter of urgency.

Now though, I think I have to leave it there. It’s a dark day for Arsenal, and I hope lessons will be learned so that if there’s anything similar again – and I really hope there isn’t – we deal with it better and more appropriately. And if anything in today’s blog has been difficult, the Women’s Aid website in the UK is available here, and Arsenal Supporters Against Sexual Violence can be found here.

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