Former West Ham striker, Frank McAvennie claims that Arsenal has been forced to offload Joe Willock in this transfer window because they need the money from his sale.
The Gunners loaned the 21-year-old to Newcastle for the second half of last season and his stunning form for them has persuaded the Geordies to return with an offer to sign him permanently.
David Ornstein tweeted earlier this month that the Magpies have reached an agreement with Arsenal to sell him.
Most Arsenal fans would have been expecting to watch him play for their club in the upcoming season.
But he has always struggled to fit into Mikel Arteta’s style of play and it seems the former midfielder has decided it would be best to cash in on him and sign a player more suited to his style of play.
McAvennie says the Gunners have had to sell him because they need funds to make up for their own spending, even though it is an embarrassing decision.
“Arsenal have spent a lot of money,” McAvennie told Football Insider.
“Not just this summer but in the past. Willock will score more goals than most of their players.
“It looks embarrassing for Arsenal. They have a young boy who is doing better than the strikers.
“Arsenal have total faith in their frontmen, rightly or wrongly, and because they spent loads of money on them they have to keep playing.
“If they want to bring more players in they have to sell and Willock was the prime candidate to go.
“Knowing Arsenal, they will probably stick a bid in for him in a few years.”
I hope it is not another Matinezi mistake. I’m beginning to doubt my faith in Arteta to take us further.
Keep the faith till the end of the season
Who says Martinez is going to have a good season this year. He could have performed as he had a point to prove, now he’s lost a little bit of hunger. Willock just isn’t creative enough for Arteta at the moment, let him go put clauses in the sale and move on.
@James
Then who is creative enough? Since Arsenal have been creating boat loads of chances, leading to goals. Who’s been creating them? I’ll wait…
Apparently they are a distance apart on personal Terms .
I hope the deal falls through ..
If we buy Ramsdale, then the club really is dead.
We’ve spent little money on average players before. We’ve spent big on players who have performed well and on paper looked like good deals despite the outcome.
Ramsdale is not cheap and not a,good player.
Zero caps, 3 relegations, £30 millions. Well, never has our season been over even before first round. Better luck next summer.
Willock had a freak spell after years of under achieving erratic often hopeless appearances andcwe are supposed to take heed of what this fool says? I dont understand why AFC bloggerscwould print their pointless utterances
DOH!
Hope u know willock is just 21…..when u say years of under achievement, I don’t understand wat u mean….he ain’t Messi , haaland or mbappe so u know…. he is willock and one of the best young players in the country but our confused club is willing to sell for 25 and buy a relegated ramsdale for 30…
@Silentstan
And yet, you posted your “pointless utterance”, which also exposed your cluelessness…
Sir, can you share your opinions on Xhaka, Elneny and their creativity and leadership skills given that they are here since the Wenger days? Also your take on Laca, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Chambers, Holding? How many freak spells did Pepe have in these 2 years? How many freak goals Leno has let in? How many goals has Eddie scored being a stkier? Why is Nelson in the squad when he seldom plays? How about Gabreil Martenelli – 28 EPL appearances 5 goals? Why pick only Joe? And others keep picking Mikel! Its either Joe or Mikel animosity! Very sad.
SS, I don’t know what you’ve been watching? You must know as much about football as your namesake.
Just waiting for Willock’s value to skyrocket as the bigger clubs come in for his services – until then, Maca what’s his name could assemble a list of players we have sold and then bought back… can only think of Martin Keown off the top of my head.
Perhaps he’s getting confused with chelsea and LUKAKA… didn’t he once play for them, or am I just confused again?
He scored goals for Newcastle, agreed in a purple patch. Not many screamers there but at least he was in the right place at the right time. We need goalscorers, agreed. But he has never impressed at Arsenal, and he’s had plenty of chances. We kept AMN when we had chances to sell, and a year later nobody wants him. We can’t keep every youth player because one day he MAY come good. We have half our squad for sale and nobody wants them. Good price for an average player. Sell
Agree
Lets sell the young improving players while keeping the over paid over valued so called experienced players that consistently let us down. We have kept Willian, xhaka, Bellerin because we couldn’t sell them and allowed players like Saliba, Willock and Martinez,or so it is looking like to depart when they are improving. Great management NOT!
But Arsenal fans just keep ignoring what non Arsenal people are saying, they dont like us, so they lie!!!!!!! NOT
Because it’s absolute nonsense. Chelsea sold a u23 cb for 20+mil to palace. Wilson has left Liverpool for Fulham at 10 mil. Harrison has left City for Leeds at 10 mil. Yet apparently when we do the same it’s bad.
Willock is not good enough on the ball. At Newcastle he barely completed any passes (bottom percentile of the entire league for midfielders.) That will never ever cut it at the top level. In a few years maybe he improves that. If not he will just be a modern version of Nolan reliable midtable scorer. At Newcastle he can run around without the ball and they don’t mind so it’s a good fit. Wish him the best maybe we pick him up in 4 years for 40-50 better than him wasting away on the bench instead.
AMN was not breaking records on loan,willock did…
We can’t be patient with and nuture players for years to sell just when they are bout to come good for a cheap fee and no buy-back clause….
Newcastle needed to sweat it out to get any of our talented kids at least 50m that can be reinvested…
If smaller clubs can squeeze substantial cash from buyers why can’t we??
25 mil is a massive fee for a player like Willock so much so the Leeds chief came out and said it publicly “If we can work at the level before they get to £20/£25 million [that’s ideal].
“Because buying English players for £20 million or £25 million who really still haven’t properly delivered in the Premier League – Nketiah, Willock.
“Both are fantastic talents, but they are big bets to put on players to deliver immediately in the Premier League.”
This is why leeds are not in for either.
So you think a 21years old Willock has nothing to prove?
This kid is 21 ffs, he scored 7 goals during Emery regime and none of our midfielder score much goals. Even before he left for loan, he still manage to score 3 goals and thats again more than any of our midfielder.
So you don’t believe a 20 years old and 21years will keep improving?
Auba was known only for his goals and nothing else, so why questioning Willock about his passing technique?
Why not retain Ozil if it’s about passing?
For a 21years old who has perfect his timing to the box to score goals is brilliant. Do you think timing is easy to come by?
And you saying AMN value dropped, was that Niles fault or the coach not using him?
A player can say his mind on where he love to play and I believe Niles will still play his heart out(even if is to show Southgate that he is able) if giving the opportunity to play RB, LB, RWB, LWB but Arteta benched him bcoz he speaks his mind. So you want his value to increase by sitting on bench?
Joe Willock not fitting “Arteta’s system”, (whatever that is), speaks volumes about where the problem is with Arsenal scoring 55 goals and finishing eighth.