What does the Willian transfer mean for Arsenal? by Konstantin Mitov
Hello lovely Arsenal people. Straight to the elephant in the room – Willian. Just a day away from being 32, we are offering him a 3 year deal on 100 – 120k a week depending on which reports you read. Is this good business?
He is a good player, but it’s difficult to disregard the age factor. Chelsea were unwilling to give him 3 years even although he’s been good for them. If we do not skyrocket into the top 4, the cost might come too high.
Our attack already has Lacazette nearing his 30 and Auba 31, both on pretty high wages. No need to remind us of Ozil’s contract situation. This problem comes from a lack of structure at the higher levels.
During the Wenger days we refused to pay high wages and give players over 30 a longer deal. Something that was often criticized and sometimes with good reason. But swinging in the complete other direction hasn’t exactly worked out either.
What is the vision here? Rumours are we want to move to a 4-3-3 system, but we already have Pepe, on who we splashed 70 million pounds playing on the left, so where does Willian fit?
Does it mean we’re aiming to sell Laca?
And how does that pan out for the futures of Martinelli, Saka and Eddie? We are a team that doesn’t create enough chances and I’m just wondering if Willian is the signing to fix that issue. We also need more goals from sources outside of Aubameyang and William did net 11 goals and 9 assists, which would be very welcome if he can replicate that, but a 3 year deal seems too much for me at 32 for a winger.
For me there is a lack of structure at the board level. No clear vision of where we are heading. We’ve made a lot of impulse signings lately. Names to catch the eye with no idea of how they’ll fit our system.
We spent 50 million on Lacazette to get a 20 goals a season striker, because Giroud couldn’t do it, yet it didn’t really work out that way.
We signed Mhki, only to avoid losing Alexis for nothing even though we had Ozil and Ramsey in the same position.
We offered Ozil a ridiculous deal, which now restricts us from signing players that might actually play, just to avoid losing both him and Alexis. We spend 60 million on Aubameyang again to cover for the loss of Sanchez and it’s the only deal that has worked so far.
Oxlade-Chamberlain joined Liverpool for less money than what we offered him, because they have a better pull. They won all the major trophies in two years. If you are a player you dream of lifting them and you can sacrifice some of your already ridiculous wages to be part of a winning team.
Why would you join Arsenal at the moment? We have Aubameyang, two decent goalkeepers and a good head coach. We barely entered the Europa League and we won’t challenge for major honours next year, so basically we must offer better deals to sign players.
But I think Raul and Edu have some explaining to do. What’s our plan for the next 3 seasons? Lay out a roadmap of milestones we want to achieve and how we will do it, detailing every step of the way with careful planing.
We are reducing a bunch of staff, who may or may not have delivered the best of results, but if the reason is to cut costs, I can point to a lot of players who can be easily removed and it would save a ton of money. If we want to replace the scouting department because we have a better way of looking for players state it as it is, otherwise this feels like a swindle.
It seems like we are serving super agent Kia Joorabchain a bit too much. You see, Chelsea lost Hazard, yet they still managed the top 4. This season featured their weakest side I can remember for years, an inexperienced manager and yet they still are a team that remains dangerous. Southampton sell key players every year and change manager relatively quickly yet they survive in the league.
That’s because the club should be bigger than the players and nobody should be irreplaceable. Arsenal lost Henry and survived. It actually allowed younger players to thrive and take responsibility, but nowadays players have too much power at Arsenal, but unlike Chelsea players of the past, ours aren’t good enough to deliver under any head coach.
They sit on massive deals which make them difficult to move on, so any manager would have to deal with the likes of Mustafi, Kolasinac, Mikhi, and of course Ozil. It’s just sad to see AMN on our transfer list, just because the aforementioned players struck gold with a deal here.
I do not want to say that will be the case with Willian too, but the club better have some plan in place, because we can’t afford another season outside the Champions league…
Konstantin