Willian has agreed on a three-year deal worth £100k-a-week to join Arsenal this summer, according to ESPN.
The Brazilian has been in talks with Chelsea over a new deal for a long time now, but a breakthrough has not been made.
The Blues only offer one-year extensions to players over the age of 30, however, they have compromised to give the winger a two-year deal, yet he has insisted that he wants a three-year deal.
The Blues will not give in to his demand as they feel that they have already made enough concessions, and that has opened the door for Arsenal to come in.
The Gunners have become a better team since Mikel Arteta became their manager, and they will want to add some star quality to their side in this transfer window.
Because money is in short supply, free agents like Willian will be appealing to them and ESPN is claiming that they have reached an agreement with the Brazilian, who should join them in a few days’ time.
Willian will become Arteta’s third major signing as the club’s manager if this report turns out to be true.
The Spaniard signed Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares in the last transfer window, and he is also closing in on a move for former Liverpool man, Philippe Coutinho.
Welcome Willian..
Aubameyang to sign new deal real soon. Yay
Some reports are mentioning a massive signing on fee also…. 10m??
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as the next gal about new signings, but after what’s been happening and seeing signing on fees and his pay cut yet still taking home 100k a week, it just amazes me!!
Maybe there’s something we don’t know… maybe some media reports are false or they aint concrete. Maybe we don’t know the things happening behind closed doors at Arsenal…Hopefully things become clearer in time
Yes, one can hope, Uzi… the media always spout their usual rubbish, yet I still read it 😂😂
2nd in goals and top assists for Chelsea this season, experienced, PL winner, rarely injured,free and can help teach our young’ens and hopefully instill a winning mentality, suits me! Especially in our financial climate 👍👍
I’m all for signings like this Rory.
My old man is a Chelsea scumbag, and considering he’s ben living with me for the past 5 years, I’ve seen alot of Willian and im more than happy to take him on a free, probably the best of the 3 we have signed from them in recent years imo
“Chelsea scumbag” hahaha aye I’ve a few chelsea friends and there not happy hes leaving, definitely the best of our recent chelsea signings I’d say by some distance, always enjoyed watching willian hes a severe baller! Lethal crosses and can consistently beat his man, he will rack up the assists for auba me thinks 🤞🤞
Ooh he can rack up a few at Stamford Bridge, that’d go down very well!! 😉
Rory, you mean you didn’t rate Cech and you don’t rate Luiz?! 🤣🤣🤣
Lmao you’ve found me out sue no I dont! Oh I never even thought about him ripping them apart at the bridge! 🤤🤤 Very pleased with this signing he was a player I was always worried about playing, mega chuffed he wasnt in the final lol
Looking forward to seeing him in red and white! We’ll certainly have some attack next season 👌 And if we carry.on this way, we’ll soon have the Brazilian national team 🤣
Not sure paying 100K weekly for yet another Chelsea reject makes sense. Martinelli? Bakayo? Will he keep them out?
Yea mate i just popped down stairs to show him the article, he’s still got a decent left hook on him for a 70 year old XD
but definitely approve of this one
Lmao send him my condolences bud! To be fair they have pulisic and hiyech is coming who is going to rip our league apart so chelsea will be fine!
Hahaa 😀😅
Die hard arsenal fans we need more fantastic players
Glad for the squad to have Willian on board but shocked by the Board’s attitude. Ffs, what does it cost to keep these ppl on for another year or two? £3m? £5m max?
How much is Stan worth? £8bn?
Immoral in the extreme and so ashamed of the club I’ve supported for thirty years. But no longer.
My membership will be rescinded if this vile and abhorrent decision isn’t reversed.
It seems for once that Arsenal are doing business at the beginning of the window rather than scrabbling around at the end
Wenger always did that. And it usually turns out to be a player we do not need after being linked with all the players in the universe. Raising the blood pressures of fans all transfer window, only to buy either unknown players or the ones we do not need completely neglecting the ones we need. He’s always fond of saying “we have the best squad available and if we see one or two opportunities, we will do it, there are not many quality players available” then the next thing we read is ARSENAL SIGNS SANOGO.
Hahaha so true
I have mixed feelings about this signing. On the negative because age is not on his side, also because he plays on the same wing as Pepe and on the positive, I know him to be a brilliant footballer. But as far as transfer is concerned, the first and major signing I wanted /want arsenal to focus their resources on is Thomas Partey, every other thing is an added bonus. If we don’t get partey and we buy in other positions, I feel it’s another wasted window that reminds one of the wenger days of what we needed vs what we got.
Yeah, seems to have gone all quiet on the Partey front, Kstix. Although they’re in Europe next week.. so hopefully we’ll know more after that…I’ve really got my heart set on him coming!
It’s strange how it’s gone quiet Sue. Am I a bad person if I want Athletico Madrid to be eliminated from the champions league super early so we can wrap up that deal.? And by that deal, I hope Arsenal has their sights set on him for real and it’s not just media hearsay. It would really piss me off if we don’t get Partey this transfer window.
No, not at all. I want it too 😄 Arteta wanted him at City, so no, not media hearsay…
I think we’ll all be pissed if it falls through…. 60 (?) days left.. so no need to panic just yet 🙂
I hope so Sue but knowing Arsenal, In every way being probably the most unpredictable football club ever. I’m just gonna try not to be too anxious about it as I’ve learned from experience that unless it’s on Arsenal fc’s official website, nothing is confirmed. I can only hope for the best and expect the worst
👍 that’s all we can do! Hopefully news will break tomorrow about Auba ! That’ll put a smile on our faces!!
on the Partey front i strongly believe that Atletico have said we can have at his buyout price, no less, no negotiating nadda, pay up or shut up kinda thing.
We obviously dont have 45m to buy him now, but if we manage to sell a few then that could change.
Also a rumur AMN has been listed for sale @30m
I wouldn’t want to lose AMN either. He’s gonna turn out great. He’s already showing what he’s capable of. He’s a ball carrying player (not just a passer), and very few of those types of players in our squad. Ball carrying players that can do one or two tricks to beat their man rather than just pass to the nearest available team mate. Ceballos, saka, pepe, AMN and guendouzi. I would expect that we sell xhaka, torreira, sokratis, guendouzi(as there’s no love lost between him and the club), maybe also sell lacazette(to be replaced by maybe an edouard of celtic) loan willock out(for me, he has not just clicked for arsenal), Nelson can stay for squad depth. If we buy Gabriel from lille, I think holding should be sold or loaned out. With Gabriel and saliba as our cb pairing for a long time. With Partey sitting in front of them alongside ceballos and a front 3 of Willian, aubameyang and pepe(hopefully he gets better next season). With Tierney and bellerin(honestly want someone batter than bellerin, I think AMN is better) or cedric on Lb and RB respectively with martinez in goal . And on the bench, martinelli, saka, Chambers, Luiz, ESR, Leno, mari, nketiah, edouard. We would be formidable and can challenge for the epl title.
Not a snowballs chance in Heck
of Xhaka being sold this summer.
I’ve never been his biggest fan
but the Swiss international has
been nothing short of brilliant
under MA and the Spanish gaffer
has repeatedly praised him for
his career resurrection @ the
Emirates.
Torreria/Guendouzi/Socratis and
it seems AMN will be on the
chopping block this summer.
Laca will only leave if AM are
serious about a swap deal for
Partey.
The wildcard might be EM, if
a quality bid is sunbmitted by
Leeds or another EPL squad
AFC may have to seriously
consider it.
One question, would xhaka get into the first team of Man City and Liverpool? Taking into consideration that these are the teams we need to compete with for the title. Do you still think even an improved xhaka (who reminded us of the player he can be from time to time by almost costing us a goal in the FA Cup final when he lost the ball to mount, thank God martinez saved his ass), do you still think that xhaka in the team would get us competing again? You must have gotten used to watching only Arsenal play football. You need to watch other football teams, watch Liverpool and man City play and you would see the improvement we’ve seen has been from poor to average. Not the level we want to be in to start competing again. If This is the best Arteta can do with these players. Imagine what he would do if he can get rid of the average players and sign quality ones. Don’t you want a team that challenges for the title? Apparently Liverpool and man City have set the bar so high in the way they win almost all games and get few or no draws that other teams need quality and brilliance from the players and coach to meet up to them. Chelsea and man utd are doing that in the players they’re signing, are we?
I agree but i want Xhaka at Arsenal next season but not as a DM though. Xhaka partey Ceballos/Coutinho in the midfield.
who is the agent of Partey? Not a friend of Raul or Edu?
Ask him to change agent and we can get him.
Haha. I guess that’s all a player needs these days to get signed by arsenal, not his ability or what he can offer, but based on the friendship of his agent with the board. I was pissed the day we let sven go, I knew there and then, Emery was going to struggle.
First, it was David Luiz, and now Willian. Who will be next! Perhaps Frank Lampard or even Ashley Cole for Manager. At this rate we could very soon be clapping to Chelsea’s liquidator tune at the Emirates, under the smiling image of Ken Bates.
Completely agree, why do we go for players who are not that important to their clubs because they were their clubs would have moved mountain to extend their contracts. Chelsea are buy new dynamic young players n we are wasting money on old discarded players.. .. completely pathetic.
Chelsea didnt want Wilian to
leave, and this “Chelsea Rejects”
narrative just doesnt apply in
this case
Wilian is immediately Arsenals
2nd best offensive player the
moment he steps on the pitch
and Arsenal cant place a price tag
on the INVALUABLE contribution
he’ll provide mentoring the young
studs that are lining up to follow
in the Brazilian footsteps.
This is a Fantastic piece of
business by AFC
👌👌
Players it sounds like Arsenal open to selling: Sokratis, Mustafi (injured so might rule a sale out), Holding, Maitland- Niles, Bellerin (according to some of the news coming out today), Kolasinac, Torreira, Guendouzi and Lacazette.
Of course we don’t need to sell all of these players and will struggle to find buyers for all of them as well.
Most like to see two of the above CBs leaving, maybe one of the full backs and potentially both midfielders.
Perfectly okay with that if we are bringing in Magalhaes or Carlos, Partey, Willian, Coutinho on loan and extending Ceballos’ loan deal. Only makes sense to sell Lacazette if we are upgrading, linked with Weghorst and interest in Eduoard.
Definitely need to get rid of Mkhitaryan and Elneny. Ozil most likely not going anywhere.
Here we go again, now because Edu is in top management all the Brazilian players will end up at Arsenal…i love it when we buy youngsters like Martenelli but seems like edu is running a retirement home for old over the hill Brazilians. I am amazed how Arsenal fans are praising this signing, like they did David Luiz as well no wonder why we keep falling down the table. Another dead wood and burden on the club. We didnt need a winger.
I will remind you of this comment come next season and we are flying. The coach knows the players he needs to fit in his tactics. The idea is to sell Laca for Partey in midfield, an attack of Will, Aub, Pepe looks better than what we have now. It might be a short term solution to get into champions League.
Mohsan, because we signed just two 30+ Brazilians we’ve now turned a retirement home for old Brazilian players? Just for the record Willian was not rejected by Chelsea but because of their policy of not giving long term contracts to players over the age of 32years and I still see him performing at a high level for the next two years if not more. Ronaldo, David Silva, Messi are over 30 and are still performing well.
Here we are talking about spending £45m on one player while our club has made 50 staff redundant which equates to 50 families potentially living on Universal Credit, as new jobs will be hard to find. One unfortunate has been with the club for 20 years!
And all this to save our club £2m per year beggars belief when we are owned by a multi-billionaire whose wife is a WalMart heiress who stood collateral for the £500m Kroenke needed to purchase the remaining AFC shares a couple or so years ago.
We are also the only EPL club to ask players to take a pay cut and in my opinion we are starting to lose the ‘classy’ image we have always had. This is not the Arsenal way!!
55 staff not 50!!!
Apparently Xhaka is leading a player revolt over the redundancy decision. Good for you, Granit!
I hope this is overturned, Andrew. It really doesn’t sit well with me… one minute, 55 gone, then the next talk of 100k a week for a new signing as well as a massive fee for his agent!! It’s sickening…
Do we need an agent when the player was already a free agent? Sounds fishy. These guys are lowering the ethos of our great club. If the earlier regime was poor, this regime is wickedly poor. Hope the 55 employees are reinstated.
100K for Wiilian is a decent wage for a decent player, not phenomenal but isn’t a deadwood either. We do need players considering we are competing on 3 fronts and the league cup for the reserves if they plan this season.
Nothing wrong in hiring Willian, but his agent?
His agent will make a packet from us… he’s Raul’s mate.. and I seriously doubt Willian will be the last of his clients ending up in our team!!
Yes, LC, Gazidis was awful… Raul is something else!!
We have to pay the agents. They are the leadership team of our recruitment.
How dare you question our Senior Management’s charitable action to keep their closed ones and agents’ employees afloat.
Our own staff and players should sacrifice to help the existence of these highly specialised “professionals”
🤣 afloat?! Yes it must be tough living on their fees!!
Yes they need to go back to a Ferrari because we didn’t pay them enough for a Bugatti.
Our bad.
Poor guys.
👍
Although I have mixed thoughts about him and with our experience from Luiz transfer, I’m still optimistic that he can add something to our future team with his experience.
Question to all of you, where do you think he fits in MA formation as I think we will sacrifice some of our offensive players.
Great hair! Sure!
At list he has some great expieriance to add for us in front. We now need cortinhio , Partey and one defender then we are done. But in case of any striker exite we can add to replace which i think may be Lacazete.
Lets hope it’ll be the last old horse to arrive at Arsenal. Typical talent search for ‘high profile manager’. Reiss Nelson should be concerned about his career
You obviously haven’t watched Willian play the last few seasons have you ?
You need to get off the managers back and let him do his job ,he has already won us one trophy in 6 months ,imagine what he can do with a few new players .
Since Willian was signed from a Russian team, I’ve been watching him play. Infact I’ve been watching Chelsea from 1999, during the time Zola, Hasselbank, Babayaro, Dennis Wise, Sinclair, Di Matteo, just to mention few players. The player coach was Ruud Gullit, assisted by Vialli. I’m still saying that Willian is just a squad player. Someone that we cannot go all out for him.
Willian isn’t a squad player in the current Chelsea squad….. I’m not that excited by the signing though.
in the first place, I have to say wow to the new website…it looks awesome. I have been following this website for years but do not comment that much.. So big up for the admins! Regarding Arsenal, I was doubting Arteta and he proved me wrong. I believe if the board / management support him to land the players he is looking for , then I am sure he will do history in Arsenal. I am already buzzing for next season!
He’s on a free, so if the wage offered is 100k/week, I can live with that…..Ramsey is a different player compared to Willian, but more or less at the same level, Ramsey got 400k/week from Juve….so realistically speaking, who am I to complain. I don’t think we can get anyone at their level below 100k/week now, especially one at Willian’s age who ideally is looking for his last big payday. Whether it would work out well, that’s another matter. At his age he would be more prone to injuries, so let’s hope he will stay clear of bad injuries and contributed 1 or 2 good seasons for us. Chelsea obviously thought he’s worth a two years contract extension so I would be happy if he can come good on that terms.
One can always choose to minimize the risk and go for younger but unproven EPL level player and pay him 100k/weekly and there still no absolute guarantees that he will deliver, and for that matter won’t sustain bad injuries, isn’t it? Come to think about it, a defender in our squad was reportedly paid 150k/weekly a few years ago because he came on a free. He was at his prime age then and have quite an impressive profile in another respectable league, so no one including me, raised any questions. The way how his career at Arsenal has panned out, so far, there’s a valid argument that he hasn’t justified his wage, but hey, it is what it is, you can’t go about questioning people’s wages all the time when you can see on the pitch they are contributing and trying hard week in week out.
If I am honest with myself, I don’t blame the club executives for laying down the 55 lowly staffs, looking at the balance sheet, they probably thought “I am not going to take a pay cut first to try save some of you”.
So I don’t blame them for thinking, “I am far too important, you go first before me” but I would be ashamed of myself if I was to be in their shoes, and did the same thing without undertaking a pay cut first myself.
But what I found more shameful is that, to be supposedly a billionaire, and to be seen not willing to extend some loan to save his 55 humble servant …I am speechless…and I feel sorry for the 55 humble servants who now have to look for a new job in the current economic climate. But hey, be thankful that the world still goes round and round and you are still surviving.
The last 3 paragraph of my comments above was in response to Sue’s comment below,
“Apparently Xhaka is leading a player revolt over the redundancy decision. Good for you, Granit! I hope this is overturned, Andrew. It really doesn’t sit well with me…”
My argument is do they really need that much each week to live on?? Some take home over a million each month.. while others face redundancy. Sorry, it just seems unfair to me.
As you say I should be thankful I’m still surviving… which I am, I’m still working!
Xhaka should concentrate more on what he’s been paid to do. He should be a hero on the field, and not off the field
@ Top Gooner,
I dont care if he got booted out of Arsenal for doing the right thing..i will certainly survive and will still have huge respect for him and he probably will have a better career somewhere else too..
“Anyone that continue to make money off the Arsenal brand” needs to do something meaningful about this too….dont you think “Top Gooner” .
Otherwise, I go back to the same lines Hey … be thankful that the world still go round and round, you are still surviving and not one of the 55.
In this world you get paid for the work you do. What talent did those scouts bring to Arsenal? Kronke cant foot the bill for scouts who are not bringing in talent to Arsenal. Only during the time of Emery, we saw Tierney, Gouendouzi, Ceballos, and Martinelli arriving
@ Top Gooner
Apparently nothing according to you “Top Gooner” . They dont “make money for you”, so you just dont care, isnt it ” Top Gooner” . I have nothing more to argue about the subject or with you, at least not on this site…We can argue until the cows come home on other platforms.
Kronke is running the business to make a profit. Even if it was you, you’ll do the same. You can’t splash billions for no gain. Kronke worked hard to make these billions, but most fans want him to spend his fortune without accountability. These scouts needs to do their job of bringing in talented players
If this report proves to be true, will Pepe become a 72m backup?,or does Arteta plan to give him another role?In the same way will Nelson be sold or loaned out? Finally in the context of the 55 paid off, how much will the agent of Willian make from this deal.Much as I have admired Willian over the years, his best days are behind him and we already have a number of talented players who are comfortable on the right wing.It just does not make sense to me.
Bringing in Willian doesn’t make sense to me either. How much is signing on fee