Newcastle agree to pay Arsenal £22m for Joe Willock

Joe Willock was an absolute sensation up in Newcastle when he went to St James Park on loan last season, and all summer Steve Bruce has made it clear that he is desperate for Willock to return to Tyneside.

But Arteta has been very coy about any talks regarding Willock, but he refused to say whether he was going to be staying either. Arteta told Arsenal.com when asked about departures for Willock, and Bellerin: “I don’t know. I’m going to coach them and train them, and respect and look after everybody because they are our players. Hopefully they can have their minds here and prepare here because they are Arsenal players and our job is to make them as good as we can.”

But today, the respected UK Broadsheet the Daily Telegraph has revealed that not only have Arsenal put a price on Willock’s head, but Newcastle have agreed to pay the asking price.

The report said.

Telegraph Sport understands that, while Newcastle’s transfer budget is small, they want him so badly that they will pay the £22m asking price for Willock.

They also go on to say that the ball is now in Willock’s court and he could yet decide to stay at the Emirates and fight for his place in Arteta’s starting XI, but Bruce has recently said that he can’t wait for ever for the player to make up his mind.

Arteta did give Willock a half hour run-out against Chelsea, and the 21 year-old scored the equalising goal towards the end but the referee bizarrely refused to believe that the ball had crossed the line.

Arsenal are desperately in need of a goalscoring midfielder themselves, so I find it hard to understand why he should not play Willock regularly this season to see if he can emulate the form he showed at Newcastle, but perhaps Arteta would prefer to put the cash towards paying for Martin Odegaard, which still seems to be a possibility…

84 Comments

    1. He’s never done anything in an Arsenal shirt though. 22m for a barely a squad player would be fantastic business.

      1. A barely squad player that scored 8 goals in the last 8 games in PL no ? Not againdt a second tier austrian team in UEL but against some top teams. A shame agaon. Might be exactly an Emi bis

      2. ThirdManJW – Exactly! This is the problem with some Arsenal fans. they want big players at the same time they don’t want to let go of utility players like Willock. We made the same mistake with Maitland Niles, of the bat of half a good season we thought he was Cafu and missed the opportunity of selling him for 20 mil last season. Now suddenly fans are in love with Willock based on half a season . 1 year down the line he will end up exactly where AMN is. Him moving to Newcastle is the best thing for his career and for Arsenal. 22 mil like you said is a steal! We aren’t going to compete with the big guns with players like AMN, Willock, Willian Elneny, Nelson, Kolasinac, Holding….etc. We need to sell all these players to buy in better players or we will be end up finishing worse than 8th position

        1. £22 million is a steal for Joe Willock and at the end of next season you will be going on about selling Joe Willock, the same way people go on about Serge Gnabry. Joe Willock is a cut above AMN and the others you mention for sale, because he is young, yet has performed at the highest level at Newcastle United, when given the opportunity.
          Now that Thomas Partey is injured, a partnership of Xhaka and Willock sure looks better to me than a partnership of Xhaka and Emery in midfield. Willock and Lokonga may be better still.

          1. Ozziegunner – Wake up! You can’t use Gnabry’s example for every damn youngster. Gnabry was an outlier. We’ve sold hundreds of youngsters and most of them did not become Gnabry. Willock will not get regular football at Arsenal. If he does not, then he will not perform at the same level as he did at Newcastle where he got regular football. He’s a good player don’t get me wrong but his is more suited to a club like Newcastle . If he was really so outstanding then bigger clubs would be vying for him, not Newcastle.

          2. Metal head, so Arsenal should keep Elneny, Kolasinac, Xhaka and Bellerin over Willock? Isn’t the idea to upgrade the squad and one would think retaining a young goal scoring midfielder would help that??

        2. The only good thing to do is sale him him with buy back clauses attached to the deal, fact is you can’t keep everyone, especially when you need grow fast.

    2. He was clearly enjoying his time there. Maybe for him it is a better move for his career to go to Newcastle

        1. That maybe true but if he isn’t going to get the game time then the money will come in useful- mercenary signing or not

          1. Yes pay the 350/week with bonuses of auba or willian’s wages. Last year combined 11 goals and 4 assists 👍

    3. Let him go don’t lose that chance, cos we can use that money for Martinez or Auoar cos my worry is in scoring goals Auba is so worrying to trust him with history making season that we are heading to

      1. 8 goals in 15 games, more than the combined Arsenal midfield scored in 2 seasons, yet Arsenal will sell him and keep the other misfiring midfielders.

  1. 22m with a 32m buyback clause seems sensible to me. If he keeps his form from last year (which seems unlikely to me), bring him back for another ten. No more sales of our potential stars without buy backs

    1. Yes, I was going to say this, but back clause, sell out clause.
      He is worth more, but it is understandable why Arsenal may let him leave at this amount.

  2. Lol so basically this transfer windows:
    1. Replace David Luiz with Ben White
    2. Buy backup for tierney and young CDM
    3. No more odegaard. ESR the only playmaker with no backup.

    To me it is almost like there is no improvement in the squad. 8th position again? Hopefully we dont end up worse than last season..

      1. I agree with you on the window but I fail to see how other clubs not buying anybody improves our team.

      2. Be real who do you espect us to buy? We aint getting anyone else in. Maybe in january once they start to panic and maybe loan in some reject from a top team.

        1. Arsenal have always been good at doing panic buys… Wenger did some. Remember the year we lost 8-2 against Man U. And the next day, last of the mercaro, he went to buy 4/5 players… Instead of starting well the summer and including them in the pre season…

          1. I rather he stay while we let go of torreira, reiss nelson, Elneny and maybe AMN to raise the funds.
            But if he is to leave, lets throw in a buyback clause. And the deal shud be at least 30mil.

            Iwobi was 30mil 2 seasons back. Brighton is quoting 35mil for bissouma and Tammy abraham is valued at in excess of 40mil.

  3. Arsenal lost 150 million when Sanchez Mkhitrian Ramsey Ozil Socritis and Mustafi all left on a free.
    Therefor Arsenal has no choice but to accept the 22mill if this report is true.
    Meaning Arsenal will also have to accept what ever Roma offers for Xhaka as it is a buyers market.
    Torreira will fetch zero.
    Willian Kolasinac Bellerin and Lacazette are staying on their fat salaries. So Arsenal face losing mega millions when they all leave on a free.
    Post Covid Niles, Nketiah and Nelson will probably fetch less than 12mill a piece so they may all be kept as English quota or loaned till the market improves.
    Arsenal therefor has to take what ever clubs offer.

    1. Good price for willock, sell and top up to bring in Maddison, we need an elite number 10 , an elite right back and a goalkeeper to offer competition for Leno then Arteta will have a squad to challenge for the top 4, remember last season we were only six points off the top four as much as we finished number eight.

    2. The problem is arsenal pay top dollar wages for mediocre players.. so mid table clubs cant match the wage demand if the players and the player is not good enough for top clubs..

    3. I understand your point of view but it is not because previous team and wenger made mistakes keeping players until the end that we have to stupidly hurry now to sell players (willock has one more year)… I dont say we should absolutely keep willock but the past is the past.

  4. Let Xhaka remain with us he’s a good player and buy back for Willock sounds good all the times

  5. Well folks, Mikel Arteta is the trojan horse sent by someone to finish off the Arsenal. Getting rid of talent like Martinez, Willock, Guendozi, that Greek defender Mavo and poor treatment of Saliba, Martenelli speaks volumes. After he took over we hired – Marri, Soares, Willian, unkown Lokonga and Nuno and Ben white after playing just 40 games for BHA for 52 grand!! Blocking the moves of Granit, is another blunder. The least he can do is list Smith Rowe and Saka for transfer and finish off the Arsenal to enjoy life in Legue One as we will not survive the Championship. The new Charton Athletic in the making.

    1. Gunner 22, you have to question, whether they would know a good footballer, if they tripped over one, given the players kept compared to the ones disgarded.

  6. If this deal includes a reasonable buy-back clause that can be activated in 2/3 seasons, it makes perfect sense as Willock won’t get the much needed minutes for his further development at Arsenal this season. It’ll be criminal to lose a home-grown talent, who is just starting to show some promise, without a security to bring him back when he finally reaches the expected quality level in a season or two.

    1. VasC, without Partey, who do you think Arsenal should play in midfield?
      Why keep Elneny and sell Willock, when Arsenal don’t lose Willock to Afcon and he’s home grown?

      1. Personally, I’m more than happy if Willock remains with us this season. But, I’m not against selling him for the stated fee, if we have a buy-back clause inserted in the deal. There are two reasons for supporting the sale.

        1. Willock has just two years left in his current contract and this is the right time to decide on the player’s future with us according to our management. There has been no signs of a talk about offering Willock a new deal until now which clearly shows our management’s lack of trust in the player’s development. If no decision is made before this summer transfer window shuts, there’s no guarantee that Willock will fetch the same in the subsequent transfer windows, we may not profit by retaining Willock this season, unless he gets regular starts in the PL.

        2. Even with Partey sidelined during the opening weeks and before the emergence of ESR, Willock started just 1 game and a further 5 substitute appearances in PL during the first half of the last season. That’s a grand 234 minutes of PL in half a season. Willock is yet to convince our management that he deserves a starting role in the squad. Our management would have come out publicly and shut this whole thing off, (like they did for ESR when Villa came calling), if they feel that Willock is a key player in our squad in the new season.

        I’m perfectly open to selling Elneny, especially, after we signed ASL this summer. Elneny is just an utility player who is into his last year of his contract with us. I’ll be very much surprised if he fetches anything above 6-8 millions this summer. ASL’s performances in the preseason looks more than just promising. If he gets Elneny’s minutes, it’ll only fast-track his development.

        Our management is not convinced by Willock yet and he has just two years left in his current contract. I guess selling Willock for 22 mils and reinvesting the proceeds from his sale in upgrading the squad this summer must be in the back of our management’s mind. Selling Elneny won’t fetch enough for serious reinvestment.

        If the choice of team selection is mine, without or with Partey, it’ll be a 4-3-2-1.

        Cedric – Holding – White – Tierney
        ESR – Chambers – Saka
        Pepe – Auba
        Laca

        If Partey is fit and available, I’ll replace him in place of Chambers.

        1. VasC, convincing Arsenal management on anything is difficult given the procrastination ion in addressing the glaring issues.
          Fair side, but I worry about Holding’s lack of pace and defensive awareness at CB.

          1. Holding clearly lacks the pace to keep up with speedy forwards. He made some improvements in his defensive abilities in the past couple of seasons and was duly rewarded with a new contract. I chose Holding for his aerial abilities and for not rushing into tackles like Gabriel does. Ben White can track the runners and having Chambers / Partey in front of them will provide better cover and mobility.

            The narrow formation is to mask our forward players’ lack of aerial prowess in the 18 yard box. Playing Partey as a DM will rob us benefiting from his ball-carrying skills in a B2B role. But, he’ll bring better mobility in front of our back-line than Xhaka.

  7. How many of you making comments remember last time we wasnt in Europe when we had george graham bruce rioch? When we were finishing 10th in the league? Wenger built our club from an average team into a top team, a team is much more than 11 players that take to the field. We probably have another 15 years in prem based on that alone. Arteta is widely expected and seen as a top manager in years to come. I would prefer to base my opinions on those of people who live the game as opposed to some idiot on the internet. Arsenal wont finish any lower than 8th next season. Personally i see us in 5th come seasons end. I expect for parts of season we will sit in 3rd but we will fall off towards the end as our youth tires. Next season we will finish top 3 and in 23/24 season we will put together a strong challenge. This is my predictions based on keeping arteta. People comment about players we buying/selling as if they are expected to come in and win us the league. That aint happening. Arsenal are building a team with only 1 recent comparable and if they can emulate even 20% of the class of 91 did for fergie then we gonna be happy gunners over the next decade.

    Shoot em down my gunners!!

    1. I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately modern society demands instant gratification. Arsenal fans need to take a longer look at how bad we had become at the tail end of Wenger’s career and the poor hiring decisions immediately following. Regardless we are where we are.

    2. LIKE!
      We have to understand that we appoint M.A not cause he is a top manager but cause he will become one through his mistakes

    3. Nigel, this article is about Joe Willock not Mikel Arteta. We can only dream that Mikel Arteta will be as successful as George Graham was as a player (already not), or as a manager at Arsenal. By the way, George Graham’s Arsenal won 2 European trophies, one as a player and one as the manager.

    4. Thats well and good is everybody above us are standing still… Not so, they are also improving their squads…

    5. Nigel, my son. Bergkamp Wright, Parlour, Merson and that defence does not make an average team. Wegner’s genius lay in his ability to adapt it’s strengths to his personal footballing philosophy and supplement it with players who could fit in quickly and add the icing to what was an already solid structure. Arteta on the other hand…… Boring man, boring football, few ideas.

  8. I admire your optimism, even going so far as comparing us the the squad of Sir Alex.

    2 8th place finishes, shown nothing but negative anti-football, and predictions based on emotions rather than performances over his time at Arsenal.

    I’ll wait until Arteta shows some semblance of style and philosophy before I crown him.

  9. Let’s take the money and put it towards buying a CAM also promote Azeez to the first team it’s a win all around for the club and Willock hell insert some clauses.

    1. On point! We still have some baby ballers hungry for action coming through, lets arm up and buy someone who will give us more goals than Wilock’s projected goal tally, and we wont miss him..

      Wilocks stock is up, bring in the next product, put him on display, worst case you sell him on too for 30 in a few years.. And hells yeah we putting a “give me back my $h!t” clause in that paperwork.. 😎 #biggunz

  10. lets see where the money goes. We’ve got signings to make for sure. If this is true then good luck Joe, it seems Newcastle is the right environment and hope he succeeds.

  11. Might as well let him go. MA doesn’t know what to do with him, amn or Nelson and is just wasting the possibilities of having a squad of young players who all play well as a team. Unlike all the bought in stars who don’t seem to recognise each other on the pitch. Great shame.

  12. Do with Willock what Steve Bruce did with him and see him blossom, it is as simple as that, he is a good player who is very desirous to play, even if it means leaving his beloved Arsenal; there are other windows, give him time and space till at least the end of this season or even January to see if you will get what you are looking for, then decide after that. i see him as a very strong and core part of the emergent Arsenal youth players of tomorrow, do not make the mistakes of Arsene Wenger in letting a couple of up and coming Arsenal stars leave only to regret those decisions, Serge Gnabry was one, they will surely come to haunt us.
    Emi Martinez is the latest eventhough he is no longer a child. I am sure he had a hand in why we lost Emi Buendia to the club that signed him and gave him the chance we felt we could not give him after almost a decade with us…REAL SHAME.

    1. 👍 The Arsenal way: – sell Joe Willock and keep Bellerin, Xhaka and Torreira, who want to be elsewhere. So much for building a committed Club culture! .

      1. It’s entirely possible that Willock doesn’t want to stay. He was waxing lyrical about being at Newcastle. We discuss player well-being from time to time and it could be a case of that for him.

        1. SueP, I agree if Willock wants a transfer, particularly if Arteta is publicly saying he will get an opportunity to play, but privately telling Willock he doesn’t rate him.

    2. @Chuma Ikeazor
      RealTalk right here Gooner. What are we, a club that half nurtures young talent, only to sell them to get enough money to buy foreign players, who may or may not cut it in the league…
      If we need the money for foreign players that bad, why not sell ESR. He’d fetch a net coin. Oh yeah, and add a buy back clause, so we can get him back if an when he flourishes…😂

        1. SueP, you being a more mature supporter should remind yourself of the origins of many of the stars of the winning Arsenal teams under Bertie Mee, George Graham and Arsene Wenger. Many of them came young and developed at Arsenal. Please Google those teams and look at the origins of the players.

        1. A man who chooses to be on social media where debate is carried on but who thinks it clever to use just one word or so, is not clever but foolish and is playing silly games with us all.

  13. 22 million pounds is simply too cheap a price to sell Joe Willock. I think arsenal should not let him go for anything less than 30 million. Why must we always pay high prices for players and sell our own players cheap?

    1. Cheap or free like jack wilshere, aaron ramsey, ozil, mustafi… We are a nice and friendly club.

    1. Rest assured he will. The man is a walking destroyer of player value and the homegrown quota.

      But in his defence, who can guarantee us Joe won’t Ainsley-up his transfer value if he stays?

  14. What makes me laugh is that we’re so ready to offer a new deal to Xhaka to protect his value.

    Willock scores goals and had a great season last year. He’s 21, homegrown. English, could have a part to play, and Arsenal haven’t tried to extend his 2 year contract still

  15. So, sell a kid who can score!
    What does AFC need? Scorers.

    Is one of our 6 rb’s, Willian, Xhaka, El Neny, Kola, or other types going to get these goals.

    Unreal, unload the underperformers and keep the youth.

    1. 👍 Aaron, apparently many believe the best way to improve the Arsenal squad is sell the young up and coming players, to replace them with purportedly better players at high transfer fees and retain the unsellable poor performers to fill squad places. Surely to improve the average squad quality you get rid of the poor players for whatever you can get for them to remove their wages and free up squad places. Then use whatever transfer budget the Club has to upgrade the priority positions.

  16. Personally, I wouldn’t want Arsenal to Sell Willock because he was very good at Newcastle at the second part of last season, although I remember many Arsenal fans wanted him out before Mikel Arteta loaned him to Newcastle and he proved everybody wrong by his great performance at Newcastle. Now the same fans that wanted him out don’t want him to be sold, myself inclusive. sincerely speaking he is a youth player that can still become great in future but I doubt know if he can get the opportunity in Arsenal shirt. selling him for 22 million pounds is a bargain, the money can be used to finance an attacking midfielder which is our major priority for now because we are only having one player in the position Smith Rowe.

  17. The word “agreed” in the headline is misused. Nothing is agreed until both parties, PLUS THE PLAYER, ALL SIGN A CONTRACT TO THAT EFFECT. Like claiming a house is sold simply because an offer is verbally accepted, which means nothing, so very often.

    Hype is constantly and wrongly used by Ad PAT IN HIS HEADLINES AND HE OUGHT NOT TO DO THIS.

    1. The article in the Telegraph clearly said that Newcastle agreed to pay the asking price…

      Don’t shoot the messenger!

      1. Pat you miss the point , which is that all “agreements ” by definition of the word”agree”, need to be between two or more parties.
        One cannot agree with one self! That was my point and hence your usual misuse of a headline.

        I am pedantic for a good reason; words need to be universally understood and not misunderstood , in order to make a point clear and not ambiguous!

        If you do not accept that, then it is pointless me trying to educate you into using correct English. I believe in reality that your English is quite good but that you choose to so often misuse it, ESP IN YOUR HEADLINES!

  18. Very sad to see him leaving, but it was clear that he can do a lot with them and he did great in EPL. Maybe MA did not know how to use him properly in the PL.

  19. Good luck to Joe Willock, at least he’ll be appreciated there and will most likely avoid the turmoil of a disfunctioning club that is the current Arsenal. I never saw him play a decent game for us but at Newcastle he looked like he was enjoying his football.

  20. Another Gnabry waiting to happen. And again, underpriced. If a youngster from CSKA London played as well as Joe did, his price would be double.

  21. I just hope we are not stupid enough to sell him for this. No other English premier league player with Joe Willcock’s history would sell for this paltry amount. 40m should be the absolute minimum- 50 to another EPL club, and if he builds on last season 80m. Please let’s not do other clubs the favours that they would never do to us

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