Arsenal have made very few forays into the South American transfer market, but they made a big splash when they bought a 17 year-old ‘wonderkid’ called Wellington Silva from Fluminense back in 2010 for a reported fee of £3.5million. It all started going wrong when the British Home Office gave the youngster a special-talent visa, only to see it withdrawn before his arrival, and the youngster began his life in the wilderness on loan with five different low-level Spanish sides.
No-one ever kept him for more than one season, with stories of missing training sessions and bustups with managers, before finally settling down and getting nearly a full season with Murcia and then Almeria, where he was playing when he was finally granted a work permit to play in England. In 2015, Silva joined Bolton on a season long loan in the Championship and Wenger was hopeful that his quality will come through. “He’s absolutely stunning to watch and I believe Bolton will be surprised by his quality.”
He did play over 20 games for Bolton, but on his return to the Gunners, he was immediately sold back to his hometown club Fluminense again. That should have been the end of the matter, but at the end of last season, Pedro Abad – the Fluminense president revealed: “When we brought him in last year, there was a clause that allowed Arsenal to buy him back for a fixed amount.
”Another club (Bordeaux, France) made a proposal that beats that value and Arsenal already said they will exercise this clause. So he should leave.”
So Wellington duly came over to France but, guess what!, he has failed the medical at Bordeaux. But the club subsequently tweeted on their official account: “Following the medical examination, the club decided not to implement the transfer of Wellington SILVA.”
What a mess! Let’s just hope that Fluminense are willing to take him back yet again….
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