Various reports of late have suggested that Willian’s time at Arsenal will come to an end this summer, and that the Brazilian is seeking a move to pastures new.
There haven’t been many concrete links as yet, because it’s hard to know who a 32 year old on very big wages who has scored just one goal this season might attract, but overnight there are rumours of a move to MLS, with David Beckham’s Inter Miami a mooted destination.
Although he has made some assists, his move to the Gunners has to go down as one which hasn’t worked out as well as anyone would have expected. Despite concerns about the length of his deal, few expected it to go quite as badly as this so quickly.
With his great friend David Luiz also on the move, and his role in the team increasingly peripheral, it makes sense that he is looking elsewhere if he’s determined to play regularly in the final years of his career.
However, the two years he has left on his Arsenal contract, and the salary cap in MLS may prove to be a complication. Whether that means the club will have to incentivise his departure, as they did in January with Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis, remains to be seen – but if that is the case, it’s a mess of our own making and one from which lessons must be learned.
Just in case it needs repeating, the lesson is: Don’t sign old blokes from Chelsea who are coming towards the end of their careers.
Mikel Arteta was asked about the future of the former Shaktar Donetsk man at his press conference yesterday, and said, “First of all we signed a player with an incredible talent, a proven talent and performance level in this league, and this season has been difficult.
“I take full responsibility because I have to be the one getting the best out of him and we had moments but not to the level that he did before.
“This is an assessment that we will do individually with the players and with Edu, the board and the ownership to make the right decisions for the future.”
It’s clear the ‘right decision’ for everyone is for Willian to play his football somewhere else next season, so let’s hope they can make it happen.
Willian, it was really nothing.
Signing him never felt like a good idea to me but, as Blogs put it, I never expected him to as ineffectual.
He’ll probably do great in MLS, good luck to him.
I read that Gervinho was on the move too this summer. It’s like a migration for terrible Arsenal wingers, moving on to more temperate climates. Next we’ll hear that Miyachi has signed for Kaizer Chiefs.
If that happens, I predict a riot
I think Ryo’s played 1 game for St Pauli this season, so I suspect he’s available
I think for his own well-being he would be wise to move. For him and Arteta actually as if the emerates is full it won’t be pleasant for either if he continues to play the worse signing in arsenal history (when you factor in wages, age and length of contract)
To clarify, Ryo has had a lengthy injury. Shouldn’t have implied he was surplus at FCSP.
I actually feel disposed toward the extensive foreheaded Ivorian, having watch Willian amble around this season
This might be a bit mental but given that Willian was pretty much backup by the end, couldn’t we keep hold of Reiss and give him those minutes?
I still feel like he never quite got a fair crack of the whip and it would save us buying yet another winger we kind of don’t need.
That’s why arteta needs to be sacked. One of the reasons he was brought in was to develop the youngsters. He hasn’t done so. Playing saka was a no brainer cos He’s the best player at our club. Rowe was played after looooong delay Until dec. Martinelli left in the cold. Balogun i can’t judge cos haven’t seen him play much. Saliba’s partner fofana is doing great at leicester so it doesn’t make sense that saliva is worse than mustafi/sokratis whichever was registered. And lastly the Willian shit. Edu’s Gotta go. We still,think He’s ok only cos He’s edu. Any… Read more »
I totally agree with the miss management of our youngsters.
You can add in the mix Ceballos and Elneny and Soares taking minutes from Torreira Guendouzi AMN and Willock.
But I still trust Arteta. And his ideas I believe are easier to be implemented by youngsters rather than the these players
And yet ironically he trusts the middling plodders you’ve named far more. A season wasted in that sense. Hopefully this is one of the mistakes he claims he will learn from.
Elneny is an absolutely fine squad player. Doesn’t cause a fuss, always puts in a shift, far fewer shitting the bed incidents than most of our players. The balance between experience and stability to blooding youth has been all wrong though. Ceballos isn’t even an Arsenal asset but was played over guys who we could at the very least sell on with some exposure.
Elneny should be the reason we can sell and replace Xhaka this season. He’s a great complement for Partey (never understood over the season why that wasn’t used more). He doesn’t have Xhaka’s passing range, but he’s about 1000x more mobile, his positioning is excellent and he frees up Partey to be more aggressive which he can’t when playing with Xhaka. And by selling Xhaka we’d logically (never something in that much abundance at Arsenal) replace him with a quality player (i.e. Camavinga [dream], Bissouma, Berge, Sarr, Grillitsch, Caqueret) and Elneny remains a very viable squad option.
How is it Willock scores 5 in 5 for Newcastle and we don’t play him so farm him out on loan? What does Steve Bruce say to the kid that Arteta doesn’t?
Steve probably says “Play well or I’ll eat you Joe. And your family. And I’ve got the stomach for it, don’t let my morphing into Mrs Doubtfire fool you”
I think there was a tactics column on the site earlier this week about how Newcastle’s different play style suits Willock more
Some fair points, but do you really think that either Arteta or Edu will leave anytime soon? I think it’s highly unlikely.
Can say saliva is worse because mustafi/sokratis don’t give you COVID.
In the interest of accuracy, this long delay for ESR you speak of included him being injured in Sep + Oct
AMN as a winger probably would have been better than Willian.
I feel the same about Ceballos, his minutes should have went to Willock, AMN, Nelson, etc.
I don’t trust Arteta as manager. He’s barely surviving as coach too.
Whose brilliant idea was it to sign a 32 yr old winger on a 3 yr deal. It doesn’t make any economical sense. Like Marvel’s Hydra, cut off one head, two more shall take its place. This is why our vicious cycle nvr end.
I didn’t know that Marvel invented a mythical creature of ancient Greek lore.
Over 2000 years ago.
Impressive.
Deuteronomy 28: If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on… **Stan Lee walks through shot twirling a crucifix** …er, earth. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. … The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
It’s a group in marvel that fights captain America, not the actual hydra, that’s just their catchphrase. Although this has nothing to do with soccer so I don’t know why I’m bothering to say this
The willian signing made no sense from the start. If experience was needed in the squad, then don’t let players like Ramsey rundown their contracts and leave on a free transfer. Oh how I miss Rambo!
Don’t say that. We don’t want to be buying him back from Juve. Don’t taint the legend having won us the FA Cup..
Sadly agree, I don’t think his injury record has improved much. Would need to be a very appearances-based deal to make sense for our money-strapped club which I doubt he’d accept
We are forgetting that Edu & Raul implied that they preferred an agent-centred approach to recruitment. That’s likely why many of our signings/ targets aren’t making sense. Willian and Cedric are Kia clients. More money than ever in football is going towards agency fees and agents stand to profit even more from free-transfers because of the signing-on fees. I’m willing to bet that we have a larger percentage of players at this club that share the same agents than most clubs in the league. The only EPL club I can think of more concentrated than us is Wolves. That’s why… Read more »
Willian has said that he “wants to become a football agent” when he retires…….cannot for the life of me think why!!!!
Still mad at Emery for freezing him out until later in the year. We would have made UCL with him
I hate to say it, but I knew as soon as his name was mentioned it would go very badly. An aging player that Chelsea no longer required being offered a huge salary by Arsenal – it was only going to go one way.
Great now I have the theme song stuck in my head…… but if it gets rid of Willian then good times
Willan, Miami’s beautiful you know. I’ve family over there so if you need picking up from the Airport that’s covered. For free as well
Iv’e also just checked on the local real estate and there’s this massive cheap beach front restaurant for sale. But move quick as the owner said he’ll hold out on selling if you buy within the next 14 days.
I’ve already paid the deposit for you.
I know the offer was for Willian specifically for a reason. However, this is so tempting, can I? 😉
Hahaha! Sure Granit.
🙂
We need to have up and coming players playing for us or ones that are in their mid twenties and have several years left to play, rather than older ones playing for their pension.
I hope that contracts are being thought through from now, don’t let players run down their contracts and go for free and no more Willians please.
If he does leave I’d give him the respect of at least wanting to be on the pitch. Not his fault our commercial team chucked a big contract at him.
Willian said he is happy at Arsenal
Xhaka saying he is happy at Arsenal
Odegard saying he is happy at Arsenal
Everyone is happy.
Is it a football club or happy club. I don’t think many of our players would be interested considering they are living in London, got not pressure from the club, regular salary, club posting happy pics all the time, manager taking the blame.
What a cool life.
£10m a year off the wage bill would be a big bonus.
If in his first press conference Arteta had told Arsenal fans that he will waste the meat of 10 million on a 33 year old who could contribute 6 goals and cut Pepe and the footballer formally known as Reiss Nelsons play time to do it you’d have called him and Edu lunatics. Yet here we are. I can’t believe we’re really staring down the barrel of another summer and season with these two running the show. We’re so very fucked. How far can ESR and Saka carry this shambles? Everything good about Arsenal’s team that gives you a modicum… Read more »
Hate to burst the bubble but he won’t go to Inter Miami. They just got in trouble for breaking the designated player rules on MLS. You are allowed 3, they were judged to have 4. They had to send one of their highly paid players down to their USL affiliate because of this. Could he go to the MLS still? Sure, but it is very unlikely to be Miami who would have to shift on *two* of their designated players to sign Willian under the rules.
It will be interesting to see if he does leave. It would be best for everyone if he did, I think but I wonder about the potential cost. The article talks about incentivising any departure, for which we can read “buy off”, as has happened with other players. Given Willian has two years left (at a reported £7 million a year) it may well not be cheap.
Thank you Miami. You have always been a Wise City 😉
Should have gone straight from Chelsea to the mls, unfortunately he’s just not quick enough to make and impact on the premier league. Would love to say it’s been a great time with him but unfortunately it hasn’t.
Fucking hell, if we can move on Mesut Ozil at all costs, then we can move on this hapless clown who couldn’t thread a needle, never mind a through ball.
Just make it happen Arsenal.
Gallas, Cech, Luiz, Willian…
Meanwhile Ashley Cole and Giroud went the other way.
This needs to stop.
It might not be as hard to move him as you think. Nearly half of his reported wages were in the form of a sign on bonus. If you think of him as a £15M transfer on 120k a week, it’s easier. But it means Arsenal will have sunk about £20M into this guy. Better to cut bait now and get £10M off the books. But a Brazilian in the Miami market doesn’t make a ton of sense from a PR standpoint. Seems they’d want someone from a Spanish speaking country. Pedro makes more sense both on and off the… Read more »
If he goes to the MLS, we will end up paying most of his salary. They have a far lower pay scale there and they won’t take him if they have to pay much of anything. Hopefully we exhaust all other options first before shipping him off there.
Tell Kia to find a better new home for his client if he wants to play at all next year.