Are we really paying Willian 220k a week? By Konstantin Mitov
Good to see you again lovely Arsenal people! The Daily Mail come out with an article revealing that the combined sum of Willian’s base salary plus sign-on fee plus bonuses will hit a staggering 220k/week. This surely must raise a few questions about Arsenal’s transfer business.
He’s 32, his stats last year amount to 11 goals and 9 assists and although he has a good injury record, a 3 year deal with an option for a fourth at these sums is ridiculous? The only player who deserves such wages at Arsenal is Aubameyang and nobody else.
What really annoys me is Kia Joorabchian coming out with such strong words towards Arsenal. He accused Sven Mislintat and practically confirmed Willian’s arrival, but why on earth is he so confident talking about us? I am really disappointed Edu and Raul have allowed the club to be held to ransom by an agent.
It’s ridiculous to offer Willian such money and then ask Real Madrid to pay half of Ceballos’ wages and loan him out to us again. We are really struggling in the CM positions, and Dani was a player doing well for us. Our transfer business just doesn’t make sense. Just because we don’t need to pay a transfer fee for a player, doesn’t mean his wages won’t eat us alive.
And sadly this brings up Ozil, AGAIN. He came out and said, he’ll “do everything for this club”. Come on, it’s been 2 managers already who identified that he wasn’t good enough and didn’t fight enough to be in the side and he was frozen out. There are no conspiracies around someone wanting to force him out. He’s not good enough and if he stays it’d be really damaging for us.
If he stays, the moment we don’t do well, questions will be asked about why didn’t we spend that money elsewhere or why didn’t we give youth a chance and so on and so on. Even the odd opinion that Ozil was right will pop-up which really disgusts me.
One huge problem around Arsenal has been that too often things off the pitch have impacted us. Whether it was the board hiding, our bad transfers, the unwillingness to spend money, protests against the owner and against the manager, now the sacking of 55 staff members, these things have eventually hit us.
If you look at Liverpool, their only focus is what happens on the pitch. Everyone is focused on football and there are rarely any distractions and you can see the results. Our wages are incredibly high for a team who finished 8th. The problem is this kind of money give you a massive problem if the player doesn’t perform to the standards demanded by such wages.
It’s impossible to move them on and they don’t want to leave and they lose their passion for football. I don’t want to judge Willian early, but it looks to me like Kia played Arsenal again like he did with Cedric. This is why the Coutinho rumours won’t die, although there is no way on earth we are paying another player such huge wages, unless there is a massive clear-out.
We’ll see what happens, but we are playing a risky game here. Unless we go back to Champions League football soon, and it’s a mighty difficult task, the amount of money being thrown around on wages for such long periods might come back to bite us. I’m not saying we may end up like Leeds, but you are never too big to fail, and we should be very careful with our transfer business, because we’ve done it wrong for a long while now and it doesn’t look like we’ve learned our lesson.
Konstantin
William has signed as of 10am arsenal annoucement
Great signing ,can’t wait .number 12 shirt 👍👍
Done deal! We have him.
Yes. Its official: Willian is a gooner.
Welcome Willian…. he doesn’t look his age..looks younger. Hopefully, he shines for us. Yay.
Aubameyang new deal should be the next news couple with some other decent signings
I am one of Ozil’s fan boys, like it or not. My honest opinion is that Arsenal fans are tired of the clubs under performances and thus taking it out on Ozil to a point. But I do not see him as a scapegoat, I see his abilities being wasted by board members who know they cannot handle fans wrath, so they divert attention to Ozil. Before it was Emery, Xhaka, Arsene Wenger. The board is winning as long as us die hard fans are mislead to real ease our anger on someone else. Please let’s not be like Jerry of Rick and Morty at the Arsenal. Insecurities people express here is really overwhelming.
Give it a rest, he has had plenty of chances. Both Arsenal and Ozil are to blame for this whole Ozil situation and that if a fact, like it or not
12 million a year for 2 years = 24 million, who wouldn’t pay that amount for William and not consider it a bargain???
Only God can help this ozil fans, before it’s that ozil doesn’t have good players around him, later it’s the coach now it’s the board. Give it a rest sir, believe it or not one ozil is our past.
Agree, Ozil who?
I agree with you. Good results will wash away a lot of negativity and toxicity.
We have to wait and see our performance next season. If we do well (and we are good enough to do so) then our transfer business won’t be questioned.
If we don’t some people will have to resign to save face because for sure they are going to be fired.
Personally I say forget top 4. Arsenal is going to be challenging for the title next season. am so confident of it I am betting some money they are going to win the league!
i wish i could be as optimistic as you, however top four is a more realistic target.
Highbury Hero am not sure you are an arsenal fan, you can’t be, if your plan is for arteta to be sacked, then I can assure you that you will be disappointed. You are so full of negativity.
I don’t understand. I am Arteta supporter. I have never said I want him sacked. Only that people should not make him a messiah and his FA Cup triumph should not be made as the greatest thing to ever happened in football.
Being confident that our team is going to win the league is negativity? Really? I can’t believe you man.
And how can I plan for Arteta to get sacked? How am I going to manage that?
Okay I am not Arsenal fan. Does that make you more happy?
Before you accuse me of negativity perhaps it would be better to look at yourself first?
Highbury Hero Your right in the sense that it is the board that do the hiring and firing the same as they buy players they want and sell players they don’t want Arteta do not get a say he is only the coach
Challenging for the title? Coz of Willian… lol.
Perhaps if we do manage to get players to fix positions of more importance, we could challenge for top 6.
Remember how the same was said last season? We had just gotten Pepe, Tierney, Ceballos… even voted by pundits to have had the best transfer deals in the league. PAL attack 😄. It ended in premium 8th. I’m not being pessimistic, hopefully it turns out well.
Come back to this comment after we are celebrating our title at the end of next season.
And you’re a super rich person hey, HH 😉
I have already started to plan my trip to The Emirates the following season.
With your winnings 😝👍
Have you got far to come then?
Yes Sue I am far away from England. But even without the winnings I am planning to come for a one game in 2021-22 season.
Good for you! Let’s hope it’s a memorable game/trip 👍
Can’t wait until fans are allowed back in…
Thank you. It’s a 5 hours flight so it will be just a weekend trip. I hope by then we will be good enough to make a trip memorable.
Hope you are allowed soon to give our lads your support and even in TV the matches are more enjoyable with fans in.
🙂 HH
Couldn’t reply to your trip comment so doing it here. Hope you enjoy the fixture friend! Maybe a prem title decider or a champions league semi final! Can’t stop hoping 😂😂
First signing, its going to be an interesting few weeks to see the plan unfold.
Arsenal with Ozil before Break. Won 8 drew 4 lost 2.
Arsenal without Ozil after break Won 6 draw 1 lost 4.
So who is fooling who? I feel like fans who do not want Ozil want Arsenal to fail even though I know that’s not the case.
So where is the problem?
Who did Arsenal play more importantly and were the games home or away?
Lol so you think we would have won against man city Liverpool and most importantly Chelsea with ozil in the starting line up, please don’t make me laugh.
Did we play Liverpool/City (twice)/Chelsea/Wolves in those fixtures before break? Nope. That was a run of relatively easier sides. Also, did we win a trophy with or without Ozil? Help me remember please…
Enough with Ozil bullshit, he was not dropped by UE because the team was struggling and some times you have to bench offensive player like ozil so you can replace him with a player who can defend from the front. MA played him regularly before he said no to pay cut and then got dropped. What happened in German team was politics not football, he was penalised for posting a pic with recognized and elected Turkish president. Why did any manager not come out and complained about him ever because he is not a trouble maker as ppl on this forum potray him. He is over payed, yes for sure but thats not his fault…blame the board. Like I blame the board for giving this absurd contact to a 32 year old player who is passed his peak and not blaming Willian for it. Before any one makes stupid comparison of age between him and Ronaldo, please compare the players at their prime age as well. Ronaldo and Messi are one in century kind of players, they posses why more talent and skill set then any other player currently. So you can not say if Ronaldo can keep banging goals in so can any 32 year plus.
Whatever the reasons, he gets bombed out regularly, so there obviously is a problem with Ozil, not the mass of people that drop him.
Let’s say Willian is on 220,000 a week, that makes it 11.4 million each year. For three years a total of 34.2 million. Remember he was a free agent for us, so no signing fee for the club.
It’s the equivalent of buying him for 15 million and pay him 19.2m in wages, around 123,000 per week to make it a total of 34.2 million. Doesn’t sound as absurd in my mind.
If it was that simple as you just calculated then why did his parent club Chelsea did not offer him same terms.i would rather see that wages to be given to a younger player then old player like Willian. You have to look at the bigger picture add David Luiz contract into it and other useless players we have on our wage list then all of a sudden you will see what I am talking about. This is called mismanagement.
Good signing for me though. Now we have adequate cover on the wings, experience, leadership, work rate.
With Martinelli, Saka, Willian and Pepe vying for 2 wing spots it very nice.
Willian, Aubameyang, Pepe –
This is a quality front 3 for top 4 contenders.
Now get us Upanecano and partey.
Imagine that 🤩🤩
Have to say hadn’t watched him before but saw the semi yday and the guy looks the real deal … Outside arsenal’s budgetary ambitions I suspect but a uality player
Konstantin, a sound argument. Back onto the topic of your article. I too thought Willan could be a good signing for Arsenal, but not if the payments detailed in the Daily Mail are correct.
Kia Joorabchian and his relationship with Raul Sanheili appears to be milking Arsenal for all it is worth. The future does not look good, particularly when clubs around the world will be hurting from the fallout of the global pandemic. Clubs need to divest of players and their wages, so good players may be available at a discount. Tying the Club to one super agent limits Arsenal’s options and risk paying over odds for that agent’s client players.
As for Joorabchian criticising Sven Mislantat, Sven has forgotten more about scouting a footballer’s abilities than Kia will ever know. After all agents only see players as goods to be bought or sold, whether they bring value to the buying club or not. Like share brokers, whether the stock goes up or down they still make their percentage.
I read the article in the daily mail ..it doesn’t give any source as to where the information came from regards to the wages
Francis, one hopes as I said it’s a big “If”. Hopefully the Daily Mail has this wrong, as is often the case.
Great signing!Hope he lives up to his reputation of a valuable player who can play anywhere across the front 3. Also MA can deploy him in the attacking midfield role or a false no.9 as and when required. His goals, dribbling skills, free kicks and assists with his floating deliveries will be of great help to Arsenal and we should be able to challenge for the top 4 again with such a potent strikeforce. Partey, up next, hopefully!
I see what you are doing here Konstantin. Whatever Willian is getting should be not of our concern. It is the club money and they feel they are in a position to pay it. Let us focus more on supporting the players and the club.
Mobella, overpaying player wages is one of the reasons Arsenal is in the position it is. Tenth highest wages in Europe, with an eighth position in the EPL to show for it. That’s in no way discounting the FA Cup win.
10 th highest wage bill in Europe but the 10th or 11th richest club ,so the wages are on par with wealth of our club .
Dan, even a greater embarrassment, given the Club’s obvious player overpayment based on on pitch match performances.
Kroenke doesn’t see it that way and that is why I have no problem with overpayment . Besides, it is Stan money and not mine. Secondly, I don’t believe you know who’s on 350k a week. I have said that several times here. It is either I’m right or Auba agent is incompetent for negotiating 100k less than what you know who is claimed to earn. He should be the highest earner at the club base on goal return even though I think that is much for a 32 year old that is not Messi or Ronaldo.
Stan does see it that way. This is one of the reasons KSM brought in Lewis to audit the transfer dealings and assess why their Arsenal asset had dropped £150 million in value.
Raul Sanheili has got the chop as a result.
Theirs no way arsenal will be paying Willian 220k a week, a younger Willian was on 120k at Chelsea, theirs no way a 32 years old Willian will now be on 220k, If aubamayang sign he will be on 250k, so are you now saying aubamayang and Willian will be on the same salary, no way.
He could easily be getting that, no signing on fee? There is far too much involved in fees, wages and signing on agreements for us fans to try and understand. If he is a hit for Arsenal, it’s a good deal whatever. If he isnt, its a bad deal.
I agree with article 👍but majority of arsenal fans aren’t intelligent enough to understand your sentiments,they are celebrating signing of Willian a Deadwood from Chelsea,you lot lost your dignity.
So you are calling most of the fans on here unintelligent ?
You are the ones choosing the believe a low-grade trashy newspaper like The Daily Mail. If you want to talk about intelligence.
It has to be with bonuses. First, not all bonuses may be payed. It depends on the conditions. Secondly, if bonuses are payed out it means Arsenal has benefitted in some way. For example if Willian gets a bonus for goals and assists and for qualifying for europe, these things will have been good for Arsenal. Money well spent.
Also in what way will Arsenal or Willian benefit from leaking the contract to the press? How could the press know this information?
£220/week for a 32yr old? Arsenal fans are happy about it, maybe I’m the only one who’s not happy about this deal.
Wish you could celebrate with us fam.. if not now you will next season when Willian starts producing the goods. Coyg!!!
I’m excited to see these line ups front 4.
Laca
Abu. William. Pepe
Or
Abu
Saka/martinelli. Willian. Pepe.
What about Nelson
The 220K a week is all the bonuses included into the weekly wage, he’s probably on 100K + £10-15 mill signing on fee which is pretty standard for a ‘free transfer’ with bigger named players
The moral of this story is don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers, especially during the transfer window season.
👍
Nothing personal against Willian but he’ll give us one good season at most. Our history of signing older players to get us through tells us that. Remember Lichsteiner?
I’m not happy that our transfer policy now seems to be run by agents, but then if we can’t keep or develop the good young players we’ve bought in the past then maybe that’s all we’re left with. Deeply depressed.
I just hope Arteta has some kind of plan.
I welcomeWilliams signing but with much natural cynical caution(partly becaise of MY age). Whatever the precise figue is it is for sure that Willans wage swill oit be cheapo andhe is 32 On thtplus side he has rarely ben much injured andworkd hard and IS STILLa quality player. But I share th4e natural caution of sveral bright and experienced fans onhere about a THREE year contract and see huge danger down thrline in morr easted money. It seems to me that RAUL AND EDU ARE IN A SENSE GAMBLING THE LONGER TERM FUTURE FOR THE SAKE OF NEXT SEASONS RESULTS,when I think we may assume that Willian wil be a key player. But for how long after that? THAT is the danger in this signing!
For a self proclaimed intellectual and a professional writer, I surely struggled to read your comment.
Please note that Thomas Partey was an unused substitute by Atletico Madrid, in their loss to RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
😂😂😂😂👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Good observation from you Highbury hero. I thought it was strange
I think you mean Mr Fox’s comment?
Over the past week there has been a media agenda against Arsenal.. I am sure no one except the club the player and his representatives knows how much the deal is worth.. is not like we had to negotiate with Chelsea so that is all the media has nothing.. but we got Willian and I am excited.
William is a good player but is not what we crying for,we desperately need central defenders and midfielders
None of our central defenders is good enough and we should have broken the bank to get Upamecano when was available for 50 millions instead of investing 35 million on Willian
Also we must secure Ceballos because it was getting better with every game
Also is a shame to loose Guendouzi because in a couple of years we will be admiring like the Bayern guy who scored 4 at Tottenham
👍
Daily Mail must have a bunch of spurs fans in their sports journalists.
But then again they’ll be right to brand us “Chelsea Rejects F.C.” seeing as how Cole, Fabregas, even Giroud and Anelka perform better for the blue club and win more stuff
Look at all the Arsenal fans getting excited about Willian like we have signed Ronaldo or Messi. You all crack me up if you guys think Willian will turn us into a force to be reckon with….probably will do like David Luiz did.
Mohsan, the only excitement is that it is a signing.
More important to move players out and address the real deficient positions in midfield and defense and the imbalance in the squad.
They work it out like this, thats roughly 10mill per year so that’s 10mil out of our transfer budget this summer and for the next two years. Free agent so his wages make up the transfer fee. When you look at it like this Willian for 10 mil a season with a better return than Willian, it’s much better transfer business than it looks at first glance!
Return than pepe *
Willian will fill Ozil & Miki void in my opinion and wont be used on the wings, I think he will be the one playing behind a front 3 of Auba, Laca & Pepe. His wages are covered with Mikis gone to Roma, Ozil will be about this season somehow.
Then behind him, After the sale of Lucas, & Guendouzi, Sign Partey & Cabellos. £30m for Lucas, £40m for Guendouzi.
One more signing would be a CB. All depends if we can get rid of Papa and Chambers as we have now Saliba also coming in.
Back 5;
Leno (Martinez hard to leave out)
Bellerin
Saliba
NEW CB or Luiz/Holding
Teirney
Saka
Martinelli
SmithRowe
Ozil
(Still will be here, might as well have him on the bench)
All can make an impact. Maybe a few loans like Coutinho etc.. be interesting to see what happens.
9 is the most number of goals he has scored and 7 is the highest number of assist he has made in primer League any single season since he has been in league. If these stats are something that excite Arsenal fans then we have the right board and owner at the club. Our league position and wealthy club standing among the big clubs in the world is justified. We have become like Newcastle Fans who get excited for signing avg players. If fans and board think sigining like these will get us into champions League or make us title contender then Arsenal as a club are the most deluded club in world. When ever clubs want to fix something or overhaul things either they buy expensive world class players at right age or they concentrate on bringing the youth talent up from below. I am afraid we have failed in both departments since wilsher we have not developed a single player who can walk into top 6 apart from Saka that’s one player only. Also we tend to go for cheap and old solutions like David Luiz to fix defence along with PC, liencstiner and now Willian to solve our creativity issues. Where as his stats at peak if his footballing age even show he is an avg footballer.
Tbf, I’d like to see him play for us first, before I pass judgement..
One thing’s for sure though – he is now an Arsenal player, so has my backing..
You never know, Mohsan, he may surprise you 🙂
Mohsan, how many young talents (Gnabry anyone? ) did Arsenal develop and sell on cheap with no buy back or sell on clauses?
Interesting reference to Liverpool in the article and how well they act.
But then Liverpool have not had to pay off the Loans and interest on two Stadiums that KSE have built.
The Emirates and the LA Rams Stadium in Los Angeles. (Estimated at two billion, currently costing around three billion).
Just a couple of small matters, what!
I just don’t want to watch our youngsters loosing their positions for any of the new players. We are planning to strengthen our team and we should start from the defense. Also, a playmaker will be a good addition but remember to give Martinelli, Saka and Pepe their chances.