Wellington Silva is probably feeling pretty good about life at the moment. After starring in Almeria’s 3-0 win over Granada, the Brazilian-born midfielder was selected by Marca for their La Liga team of the week.
Plying his trade at his fifth Spanish club in four years, the 22-year-old is finally getting regular game time, featuring 31 times so far this season for the Juegos Mediterráneos outfit.
Added to his upturn in form, the former-Fluminense man has also just secured Spanish citizenship meaning he finally has the necessary paperwork to start his career at Arsenal.
Sport Witness carried an interview last month in which Wellington claimed his representatives had opened negotiations about a contract extension.
On the subject of again putting pen-to-paper at the Emirates he noted: “My agent told me recently that we’re dealing with my renewal. I only have a year with Arsenal.
“I want to have pre-season there and I’m very happy about this news. But I am now at Almería and my thoughts are here. We have to achieve our goal of staying up.”
It’s probably wise for him to focus on his performances for Almeria. As things stand Arsenal have 11 (!) first team players who can be deployed on the flanks; Alexis, Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey, Walcott, Welbeck, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Podolski, Gnabry, Campbell.
That’s a lot. Arguably too many.
While some of those may well be shifted to pastures new, either permanently or on loan, it still looks like an uphill struggle for Wellington to nail down a first team place at Arsenal. Either way, good luck to him. It’s positive to see him turn things around after a tough few years.
Perhaps we’ll see him sporting the red and white this summer.
Alexis benched for next season then
Walcott’s replacement?
I really like this kid, I’ve checked out a couple of Almeria’s matches this season to see him, and he looks promising. Glad to hear this news, though I share the concern that he won’t be able to crack the Premier League matchday squad anytime soon.
Never seen him play, but stoked that he can finally play in EPL. Perhaps, next order of business is to send him on loan to a club in the EPL just so that he can accustom himself with the physicality and style.
He’s already 22, older than Gnabry. Why bother?
I think I agree. With all the young talent we have and at his age, it’s either he’s ready to contribute now or it’s already too late.
That’s a nonsense. What matters is how high can a player get, not whether it’s an early bloomer or not. Mind you, at Silva’s age Koscielny was playing for Guingamp (huh?) in French 3rd tier…
Obviously a 22 year old can still improve, Captain Obvious, and I never said otherwise. But we have loads of talent around the same age or younger at the same position. If he’s not ready to contribute now after several years playing in Spain’s top flight, there’s not much reason to believe another loan spell is going to enable him to jump ahead of the other talent on the roster.
This all being speculation of course. It was nothing but a conversation about whether we should bring him to England just to send him on loan again, then you interjected with something totally irrelevant.
You are missing the point in a big way mate.
Would just like to point out, on the off chance that you ever revisit this, that Andrew echoed the same sentiments in his blog post yesterday. Doesn’t automatically mean it’s right of course, but certainly a voice most of us here I presume respect a bit.
With that mentality we would never have seen Ashley Cole or Coquelin perform so well for us. We never gave Wellington a shot, and we might not even be able to give him a shot, so why not give him a shot to prove himself in the EPL with other clubs instead? Lukaku proved he could perform with Everton and Chelsea received a healthy profit.
I just have no idea why you’re so opposed to this.
What the hell are you talking about? Opposed to what? I said in another post that I have seen him play a few times and really like him. All I’ve said is that after a billion years on loan already and at age 22, with loads of young talent already contributing at the same position he plays, that if he’s not ready to contribute now then his chance is probably gone. I don’t know what you think it is I’m “opposed” to, but I would love to see him get into the squad and contribute.
give him a chance, remember our coq story…
What’s your beef with Wellington?
Good one, all my mates in the office are now wondering why I burst out laughing! So much for sneaking onto Arseblog while I’m at work.
Shame he’s not a defender: “and Wellington boots it to safety…”
“….. and Silva curls the ball into the corner of the net! Courtois had no chance at all. And Arsenal are 3-0 up!” 😛
What’s wrong with “Wellington boots it into the back of the net again”?
Please, stop! Everybody in the office is looking at me now!
Eleven players can play the wide position that is a lot. Guess I’m like Wenger, I want more or atleast would like see Wellington integrated into the squad on behalf of someone else (Podolski maybe?). He seems to be someone with a slightly different skill set. A genuine Winger, rather than either a middle maestro (Ozil, Carzola, Ramsey, Rosicky) or a forward (Alexis, Welbeck, Podolski, Walcott) or upcoming midfield talent (Ox), who have been playing in that position. Ofcourse he is not ready for Arsenal next year and a year out on loan in the Premier League would help provide… Read more »
‘Cos while booting it to safety Mourinho’s c*ck stood in the way of things…. U know what that means
Moaninho has a cock ??? !!! (no way “Jose”)
Never seen him play, but from the buzz on the web about him, he seem to be a decent player with a potential to develop into something more…..he is only just 22…….so for me, nothing wrong in giving him a try, you never know?…….and if he dosent cut it?….ship him out on loan or offload him to some lower league table club…going by the hype around, there seems to be plenty of suitors for him if we dont want.
Podolski and Campbell off in the summer. Possibly Walcott too. Gnabry loaned out, that’s just 7. Wellington to Palace for the season.
This dude is tiny & although occasionally he shows good glimpses, I don’t think he has enough about him to make it with us & I’d give him the boot!
Hope he gets a chance look at Le coq now so anything is possible if he continues to progress it might not be too late
Wellington ‘Boot’ anyone?…. Tough crowd….
Arsenal should have their own army of Forever-a-loan players like Wellington and Campbell. They are primarily financial prospects; players with promise, whom we should not get attached to, but might someday Coq their way into the first team. Chelsea have been doing this for a while now, securing talent all over the globe, and have somewhere close to 40 players out on loan. They’ve obviously made some serious errors like Matic and de Bruyne but at least they are in a position to be able to pass on that level of talent. Had Arsene been in command, I doubt he’d… Read more »
We have the best manager with the best sense of how to handle such a young player so what ever happens he’s at the right club at the moment beside He Cld be another coq who knows we ve all wished for more than one at one time
I love the way people say ‘I haven’t seen him play but ….blah blah’.
You really need to see them play before you can make any judgement.
If he comes to us then he’ll have the potential to own a place in the 1st team but if we move him on then the management team will have decided he won’t make it.
But they’ll make that decision having seen him play!
He is 71 on Fifa so sell him, why bother watching him?
Above it says he’s 22 years old not 71!
I watch Almeria just to see him play. I did that with Botelho but Wellington seems to be different. I cant imagine what it must have been like to leave home at 17 for Arsenal but end up playing on loan to many teams of lower quality. If it was me, I would have given up a long time ago. Seems like a good kid and his earlier problems should not be surprising. He is humble, has developed an incredible work ethic and I still believe he can be a success with us.
Agreed. I also did the same with Botelho, Vela and Coquelin.
I’m a big fan of Silva and predict he will make a statement next season. I said the same for Coq too.
Also, he’s a left-footed winger, and we don’t have many of those. In fact he may even be our only one that’s a natural left winger.