Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal are discussing the possibility of letting Willian leave the club this summer.
Signed last summer on a three-year deal, to much fanfare from the manager, the Gunners are now ready to cut their losses after the 33-year-old’s underwhelming first season at the Emirates.
Rumours circulated earlier in the week that his former club Corinthians – with whom technical director Edu and agent Kia Joorabchian both have close links – are ready to welcome the player back to Brazil.
“We are having conversations with him and the agent and we are evaluating the position that we are in at the moment,” said Arteta when asked about Willian’s future.
“At the moment, he’s an Arsenal player and we’re trying to get the best out of him when he’s here. Anything different is maybe just things that can happen.”
Willian tested positive for Covid-19 after the pre-season defeat to Chelsea and hasn’t been part of a matchday squad this season.
Arteta was also pressed on whether there might be other comings and goings before the transfer window closes next week.
“We don’t know, we’ve already done a lot of things, ins and outs, a lot,” he said.
“I think it’s 16 or 17 deals in total, including renewals, which is a lot of things. There are still some things to do in the last few days because there are still some question marks and deals that can happen, but we’ll see.”
He went on to dismiss a story linking Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a move to Manchester City – “he will remain here,” he said – but was coy on the future of Sead Kolasinac who started last night’s win over West Brom.
On the Bosnian playing the full 90 minutes, he said: “It’s an indication that every player who is with us, who is training and behaving the way that Sead is, when we have the possibility to give them minutes, we want to be fair. He’s our player, we treat him exactly the same way and then we’ll see what happens. At the moment, he stays because he’s our player.”
33? Blimey. I thought he was 32.
32 stones
He was 32, but then he turned 33.
Is that how it works?
Didn’t blogs say he was 50+ ? 🤔
Yes, but that’s in footballing years.
I heard he was older than Samuel Eto 🤫
I heard he was older than Samuel Pepys.
He’s the reverse Kanu!
33 grand a day.
And most of that ends up at Greggs.
We should give him that in coins every day to carry home, then there wouldn’t be a fitness problem for sure.
I was well excited about Xhaka leaving, but now he’s here to stay.
Please, please, please, don’t make Willian be here come September 1st
He is not trying to go back to Brazil, spent his whole childhood training to get out lol.
Let’s hope outgoings are absolutely the only topic of conversation between Arsenal and Willian’s agent.
No more has-beens, Chelsea rejects, ageing journeymen, end-of-career parasites, coasters and high-earning bench-warmers from Kia Joorabchian please.
And then, never go near this guy again.
Exactly why I’m not very keen on the Trippier links. Man’s 31 y.o. Is a former Spurs player, and has already won plenty at Athletico. Bad signs altogether.
West Ham found Soucal, Leicester Castagne, Aston Villa got Cash, pretty much out of nowhere. And we can only find a past it 31 y.o.? FFS Edu
West ham are better run than Arsenal right now and that’s a frightening thing to say…
Have to agree, and also better coached. Antonio’s transformed into a very able forward. Creswell making a case for an England call up, Bowen and Rice both continuing to develop as players.
Aston villa got a loooot of cash for sure
Soucal? 😀 not sure if you mean Souček, Coufal, ale those two alltogether LOL
My bad. I meant Coufal. Not a native Czech hence I get their names mixed up 😛. Point still stands though, man’s a very solid right back and West Ham got him on the cheap
Auba, saka, pepe, esr, even laca. There seems 2 b the making of a good attack with the right coaching
A good coach would include odegaard and Martinelli in that list though
On a yacht, no doubt.
…that is in mortal danger of sinking…
Whatever the Kroenkes can be accused of, being careless with money probably isn’t one of them. If this deal wasn’t one of the reasons that led to Sanllehi’s departure, I sincerely hope that whoever was behind it (*cough* Edu) is under really close scrutiny (and I mean to a fecking electron microscope standard). This looks like turning into a great deal for Willian, for Joorabchian and now Edu’s mates at Corinthians get a heavily subsidised* ex-international on our dime. On reflection I hope he stays and we make him sweep the stands, or whatever the 21st football millionaire equivalent is.… Read more »
I’m sure we would be paying almost all of his salary. There’s a reason that so few top Brazilian players stay home.
The Kroenke’s are actually quite careless with money when it comes to sports ownership. It is just that they have so much of it that this carelessness is easily covered up by how much they are subsidized by the various cities, states, and national governments, that they parasitize via their “franchises”. All of their U.S. teams are notable for underachieving relative to their markets.
I don’t disagree with the rest of your post, but I really wanted to say that the Kroenke’s incompetence shouldn’t be underestimated.
Maybe but In the US context I’d fold the aspect of not having relegation and holding whole cities to ransom over subsidies/footing the bill for infrastructure, is a “cute” way of controlling the bottom line. But I understand that they might not look at every player contract in absolute detail However, they’ll care massively about the lack of Champions League income and I’d guarantee that even if they’re not fussed about their own failings, they’ll not tolerate someone else pissing money away while enriching their mate. I’m definitely not saying they care about whether we should’ve played 5 at the… Read more »
They’re not careless with money?!! Eh?!! That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all year. We’ve spent more cash than anyone else in the league last few years, like 350 mil…!! more than city, Chelsea and utd…and what have we got from it?!! Absolutely sweet fuck all!! Kroenke out.
That’s my point.
If we haven’t been under scrutiny until now (the absentee owner thing), wasting money will bring sharp focus from above.
Stan’s net worth is currently estimated at over $10 billion, the Arsenal turnover is about $450 million.
Amongst their other ‘franchises’ and real estate, Arsenal are not the single biggest asset and won’t ever get the focus fans desire.
The only red they care about are the numbers on the spreadsheet.
Agreed 100%…Everything bad that has happen, happened under their watch. As the top-most leadership at Arsenal ..they are just as responsible as their underlings for all the poor decisions made by the club becoz I am pretty sure they are the one who gave the final go-ahead.
Which is why the man has to go. He was undoubtedly a fine player for this club and that is how I would have liked, as a supporter, to remember him. Those Invincibles memories, however, have been sadly tarnished by his present day Technical Director antics; in short, he has stunk the place out. This whole Willian fiasco has been bad enough, but to give Xhaka another four years is frankly the last straw. The only ‘comfort’ I take these days is that all those cunts who were screaming for Wenger’s head are now getting exactly what they deserve. A… Read more »
You support the arsenal to right? That means you’re getting a mid table team that flirts with the relegation zone aswell then. The board is to blame for this shit show, not the fans that wanted wenger out.
Yep, 100% on the board for not have a well thought out succession plan post-Wenger. They only needed to see how well it went for United post-Fergie to work out how not to do it.
Dr Frankenstein offers his apologies for creating the monster.
See bloggs! Edu prancing around with Kia all summer has lead to this wonderful development 🤣
“We’re
talkingpartying with his agent”I still would like to know who in the actual F$@# approved Willian’s signing to begin with????
same cycle all over again!!!
The same guy who thought that giving Xhaka another four years was a shrewd move….
The club took up the option to extend Xhaka contract. It isnt an additional 4 years.
Good now he can take all his millians he made from us and enjoy Brazil.
Never misses a chance to have a dig at Edu.. it seems Arseblog always has to have one enemy figure at the club who he’ll stop at nothing to bash?? And always mentions his links to Kia Joorabchian.. how many of his players have we signed for Arsenal since Raul Sanlehi left the club? Answer, I think, is: zero. Can anyone confirm that?
The Limp Bar.
Edu’s latest holiday destination.
kia get the hell off this platform
All he wrote was that Edu has a link to Corinthians, which is true. I feel like Blogs has done pretty well to stay fair regarding Edu. I seriously doubt many Arsenal fans want to see him fail.
He’s been saying negative things about him pretty much since the get go on the podcast and on countless posts, that’s why I mention it
Don’t cry now.
Lol.. mature response
Are you supporting this deal and the stench that has followed it since?
Or maybe blogs should have blamed David Dein for this deal to please you instead.
Eh?
….to be fair it was David Dein that introduced the Kronkies to the old board and they all sold up the Stan, except Dein who did a U turn and made a mint selling to a dodgy russian gangster – the old board are the only ones who have benifited from our new owners…..
I’m surprised he hasn’t blamed Cedric yet…that poor cnt gets blamed for everything on here. Covid, global warming, brexit and not picking up Reece James on the opposite wing last week etc etc
A Cedric Fan….!
Quick, someone phone David Attenborough….
Cedric and Willian are the only two left in the squad represented by Kia Joorabchian. He also represents the departed David Luiz.
So that is three more than zero.
..since Raul Sanlehi left the club. So zero it is..
I’ll give you that because you’re technically right, but it also masks the truth of the matter. And the truth of the matter is that Edu likely played a significant part in bringing all three players to the club. Arsenal have signed three Joorabchian clients since Edu became technical director in July 2019… responsible for (you guessed it) strengthening the squad: “In his role as technical director, Edu will coordinate the work of our first-team coaching group, the academy and player scouting and recruitment in order to oversee the constant building up and efficient strengthening of our squad.” – Arsenal.com… Read more »
Mari is Kia´s player too-…
The irony is in the particular situation Edu’s relationship with Joorabchian might work in our favour.
I do not and never have understood why people think it beneficial for Arsenal to be actively hostile to agents and particularly the big agents?
Yeah.. a major part of his job is maintaining relationships with agents! Some folk think it’s somehow a bad reflection on Edu for doing this.. the point Arseblog makes is we have taken on players from this one particular agent on deals which were way more beneficial for the player than for the club.. whereas the reality is that this happened when Raul Sanlehi was there, but not since Edu took over.
Honestly those 3 transfers wouldn’t break into the top 5 worst Arsenal transfers over the last 5 years let alone 10.
It’s completely over the top. All three are internationals for major countries, 2 have had highly successful club careers and they were all relatively cheap.
Have they all been the greatest players in the clubs history? No, but certainly not the worst.
Roughly £83m in wages and fees projected over the duration of all three contracts is not relatively cheap for the quality these players have displayed so far. Cedric at £15.6m in wages and fees is solid but unspectacular. Luiz had his moments for £23m in wages and transfer fees, both good and otherwise. I think Willian at £44m, including wages and signing on fees, is a terrible bit of business and definitely ranks as one of the worst Arsenal signings in my 41 years, especially given his supposed pedigree. Of course, some blame must fall at the manager’s door (although… Read more »
That is a lot of money but Ozil contract extension was £64m alone, Pepe over £100m in transfer fees and wages, Xhaka got to be in the region of £80+m, Mustafi £50+m.
So all in all considering the club and international pedigree those 3 have combined, yes £83m is relatively cheap
With Willian and Torreira out and more MF outgoings expected, we will need reinforcement in the MF. I will like to throw a name in the hat, Weston Mckennie. He’s only 22 with loads of experience, flexible, USMNT regular, flexible role in MF, goal-scoring MF, and commercially positions Arsenal in the US market. Apart from on-field quality, Pulisic has made Chelsea a big deal in the US. Arsenal needs to learn to buy the best players from big markets. Thoughts anyone?
Juventus purchased him 5 months ago.
There’s rumours to various teams being interested in him, so it doesn’t sound like Juventus are that enamoured.
This post is amazing if you substitute every MF with “motherfucker.”
That’s what I did.😄😄
Read in the style of Samuel L. Jackson?
Will always be No.1 in any ‘Top 10 Arsenal Flops’ compilations FOREVER
The first name on the sheet.
Here’s my All Time Worst Arsenal XI
Manager: Mikel Arteta
Very harsh on Eboue and Denilson.
Squillaci and Silvestre should surely make the list!
Also very harsh on McGoldrick and Hillier, who were perfectly decent squad players.
Neither set the world on fire, but not awful.
Willian the sponge – he sponges up a healthy pay packet and sponges up leftover food and his belt expands accordingly
Jam sponge, chocolate sponge, the sponge in the orange bucket, he’s eaten the lot.
Can’t wait for him to leave
I’d like a word with his agent. Pistols at dawn. Twenty paces. Blanks for him of course.
Is it just me or does Willian look like a tanned Pennywise in that shot?