It is ironic that Arsenal signed Willian onto a big-money contract while they were trying to get rid of Mesut Ozil from one at the start of last season.
The Brazilian has now become the same type of burden that they got rid of when Ozil left.
Willian joined Arsenal as one of the best attackers in the Premier League and we had expected him to help our team to thrive under Mikel Arteta.
Arteta believed in him so much that he benched Arsenal’s record signing, Nicolas Pepe for the Brazilian.
Now the Gunners want to offload him, but Tuttomercatoweb via The Sun says that is almost impossible.
This is because the attacker simply earns too much at the Emirates on £200,000 a week and he doesn’t seem like he will ever play well enough to justify that wage.
The report says Arsenal remains keen to get rid of him, but they are stuck with each other with two more seasons left on his current deal.
The Gunners reportedly need him off their wage bill now, but they are more likely to be stuck with him for the duration of his deal, bringing them back to when they had to put up with Ozil.
The amateurish way that this club has been run is nothing short of embarrassing. I just hope Auba doesn’t turn into the same thing too.
And then you look at our keeper situation and you can see why Arsenal are a laughing stock!
Couldn’t manage a piss up in a brewery!!
GunnerREy, we don’t have any keeper situation as I believe Leno is capable enough if we are going for Oblak or Pool’s keeper. Let Hein and Okonwko compete for who is second and third choice. Just last year we let go about 4 goal keepers we have invested greatly on. Why wasting resources and time on them if they can fill in at the second and third space like during the time of Wenger.
If we don’t have a situation then why are Arsenal considering Ramsdale? Likely to cost more than £30m when we already had Emi who we sold for half that amount last season?
Then it is what most fans are saying… that our coach is a cheque book manager. Well what I read about Emi was he asked to be sold after he had told everyone in home country he is leaving us and then he asked the coach to make him number 1 when he had 5 years to make himself number 1 . He wasn’t on mass when we signed Leno of keeper of the same age with him. As Ramsdale, is he better than Hein let alone Leno?
Signing of Wilian was one of the best mistake Arsenal made but now they have to face it for another 2 years
“BEST mistake? You mean WORST mistake. It can only be a best mistake if you are a Gooners rival club supporter. Are you?
100k a week
Was still a top player when he joined ,maybe we have to look at the way he’s been managed, it the first player to go downhill as soon as Arteta got his hands on them .
Dan kit, what is Willian actually wages? The info was he would be on 120k pw when we signed him. Where is the 200k is coming from
Hi Dan.
It would be e interesting to see who you consider to have gone downhill since the arrival of M A
Partey
Ozil
Willian
Auba
Partey – Backwards debatable, but more not lived up to billing. I think we have yet to see the best of Thomas since his arrival from Madrid maybe due to other aspects of a player arriving from a different league. Pre-season (such as it was) looks promising).
Ozil – Was not playing consistently under Unai Emery, the cracks were starting to appear pre-Arteta. Moved on in any case.
Willian – decline had already started at Chelski (not offered the contract he was after) – so not downhill just a continued slide.
Why take him in the first place is more the question. An appalling signing, would anyone argue ?
Auba- looks that way agreed, concerning.
Good / continued progress with ;
ESR
Saka
Pepe
Gabriel
Tierney
(may have forgotten someone here).
Watch this space re’ Tavares & ASL
Not sure what he hell’s going on with Martinelli ?
Must admit to being relieved at your comeback
Thought I was going to see 1 – 11 😉
Dan, you are surely joking? I refer you AJ below and add that Partey had all sorts of problems first season. He came to us exhausted, got injured, had trouble acclimatising, had to play out of position as a DM (hes a BtoB) with no protection as we had nobody else. Please watch him start next season to witness his continuing “decline” under Arteta. Ozil was at the bottom of that hill when Arteta arrived.
Far more players have improved. But I have a sneaking suspicion that whilst any players decline is Arteta’s fault, any players improvement is purely down to the player themselves, with no credit due to their manager…
It’s not the *
Dan, there’s clearly a pro-Arteta agenda afoot on JA in recent weeks that lives by the unusual adage of logic be damned…there’s no doubt that very few players have progressed under this manager…unfortunately those who displayed some improvements are either gone, on their way out or have relatively little importance moving forward, like Xhaka, Luiz, Holding etc…even the vast majority of those individuals can thank their respective upticks in performance to MA’s negative style of play
I would suggest that nearly every offensively-minded player has either regressed slightly, in that they haven’t progressed during his tenure, or their play has significantly dropped, minus Pepe, who, even so, seemed to get benched every time he showed glimpses, until the last 5-6 matches
Auba has suffered miserably due in large part to the negative tactics, Laca is the same hot/cold performer, Saka was far more noticeable and effective when deployed on the left early on, ESR was an afterthought who even after his revelatory appearances was quickly shuffled out wide when our loanee from Real arrived, Partey was rather pedestrian considering he was given the unenviable task of bossing the middle of the pitch largely by his lonesome with very few upfield options, Willian was the worst Willian I’ve ever witnessed, Tierney was less aggressive even when healthy and Marts was an absolute non-factor, considering his glaring lack of opportunities…of course, most if not all of these issues can be remedied….whether or not that occurs under our current manager remains to be seen
TRVL
RUBBISH.
If you actually read others views on here and bothered to absorb them, you may have noticed some have chosen to get behind M A for a little longer than the last few weeks ?
I being one of them.
It was painfully obvious the Kroenkes were going to stick with Arteta for the coming season.
I therefore was / am more interested in what’s is taking shape for NEXT season watching a more Arteta based side.
High press, more energy and quicker in transition.
No European football, so balls out domestically.
I have no worries in stating on here, I have a feeling Arteta will evolve into a very good manager.
Remember “Arsene Who ? “
Too bad, they didn’t stick with Emery given his past experience, achievements and the team’s first season performance.
Soon we’ll see the solution for this Willian situation in an opinion article titled “How signing Willian on a free transfer is the best ever decision the club made!”. Time to chill and wait for the artificial intelligence to put that into words.
Haha VasC i see what you did….
His name is Agboola Israel = AI = artificial intelligence…
This is why I love the comments on jA!
“Free” with a 15m signing bonus lol… Probably one of the best deal ever from arsenal. We should not call it free. He was a free agent, but the transfer was not free… Big difference
Why did we let Martinez go leno is a accident waiting to happen
it is the one sticking point that makes me doubt artetas decision making. what kind of manager would go all out for this hasbeen and total mercenary. now, before everybody gets on my back, i have to say trhat i am an arteta fan , except for this dreadful piece of business.i guess it would be great, for arsenal, if, we could find a new home for willian the non-conqueror, and lets also hope that it happens before the new season begins. i am loathe to look at this player in our strip .
Willian has been a disaster at Arsenal, there is no way to sugar coat it. Although it would be interesting to look back at the comments section when he was signed to see if anyone thought that it would be quite the stinker it has turned into.
I know I didn’t.
I often wonder just how much this single decision feeds into the narrative around those that want Arteta out. I’ve no doubt it’s his biggest mistake – the salary, his age, the consistent selection of him over younger players needing game time, the inevitable comparison with the Ozil situation.
The only way this doesn’t linger is if Willian (a) recaptures his form or (b) decides to leave the money on the table and go somewhere else. Can’t say either is likely. That leaves the only option as Arteta giving him the Ozil treatment. Get used to the smell.
Great point re. comments at the time. We warned the club about signing Willian. If fact, we predicted it would turn out to be the most boneheaded signing ever undertaken in the history of the club. Sad to say we were spot on.
Even more sad when I remember that Wenger let some legends walk away like Robert pires because the club would not like to give 2 year contracts to over 30 years old players. And now we give 3 years to a 32 year old. That was not a legend and does not care about the club. Total opposite. We went forman excessive stubbornness to an excessive stupidness.
Congratulations Johnze for one of the most telling and significant comment I have read on JA. It speaks to the risks of bypassing or ignoring long standing traditions and rules at the heart of great institutions. We ignored this risk when we appointed this group of young, inexperienced managers – including Arteta and Edu -to lead this great club.
First time ever I’m seeing my most favourite Arsenal player mentioned in JA. Thank you Johnze for reminding me that there are people out there who still remember Robert Pires. Made my day.
Even the great Dennis Bergkamp was only ever on one season contracts from age 30 onwards.
me too voyageur. The signing was forgivable, but the 3 years wasnt
Gerry – he may be a mercenary now but he wasn’t when he signed. 5 years at Shahktar followed by 6 years at Chelsea is not the career path of a mercenary. He also had a reputation as a total professional at Chelsea, and had a good last season. There were no signals that we were signing a dud. For me the avoidable error was the 3 years. MA and Edu really screwed it up.
You are right with Willian’s career. But he was a mercenary this time. He did not came for the challenge because he loved arsenal as a kid or for playing time like Giroud or cech. But just because he wanted a long contract and stay in London. This would have already been a big warning… You want guys that believe in the project. What is funny is that arteta, once in a live talk with wrighty, proudly told him “if you don’t really WANT to come to Arsenal it is a problem”. And then he went to push to convince William to come (as reported by joorabchian)
For a 14 million pound transfer fee (or “signing bonus”) we got Willian. For 23 million Leicester got patson Daka. For 17m with add ons, Leicester got Harry Maguire. One year sooner we got mustafi for 35m. For 7,3 m a year Leicester have Vardy. For 13m, arsenal have Aubameyang. There is no wonder why Leicester went ahead of us without a crazy lot of money. They just did and do better business… We can be very lucky to have had the academy, ljungberg and mertesacker and Saka and Esr. Without them, we would not even have made 8th…
Question. Was the 14.4 million transfer fee paid in cash up front or is it part of the weekly wage? If the former, than the weekly wage is only a little over 100k and perhaps Willian could be moved?
The signing of Willian was driven by Edu but unfortunately Arteta went along with him.Successful Managers quickly learn from their mistakes and let’s hope Arteta falls into that category for the sake of our Club.As for the suggestion that Arteta alone is responsible for the failings of Ozil, it is difficult to comprehend that anyone with a semblance of knowledge of the game could make such an absurd assertion.
Not sure if the manager is someone who learns from mistakes, judging from the deluge of strategic and technical errors he made all season long.
I’ll start believing, when I don’t see Willian in our final squad list for the coming season.
I got nothing against Willian, the family man, but respect, for putting his family first while he decided to sign for us.
I just can’t ignore the justification given by our management for handing Willian a three year contract. Winning the Champions League before he is gone, especially after finishing 8th on the league table.
Who was the potential signing of Sergio Ramos Grandad, we offered £15 mil a year for two years. What was that all about. That is my worry with Edu and Arteta, scatter gun approach, no plan and help the aged.
Grandad, Ozil was well and truly on a downward spiral before Mikel Arteta arrived. No one could surely forgive his performance in Baku in the Europa League final.
We need to hurry up and try and get rid of Willian he was an absolute waste of time and money 💸,he’s said that he would love to go back to Chelsea,so why don’t we try and offload him there or see if someone else wants him!!!!!!!!
It makes me smile when Willian is linked with Ozil, why can’t we discuss the current mistake and who is to blame?
What makes both this and Aubemeyang’s contract even worse though, is that the club had the experience of Ozil’s contract AND it was, seemingly, ignored.
Someone must be accountable for that, surely?
Just waiting for the author to demand that any fan who supports/supported the Willian signing should leave with him if or when he goes…. and that follows with Aubemeyang I assume?
The club just isn’t learning. The transfer looked bad from the first links. i tried to be positive after it happened, but he’s another expensive flop, that contributes nothing. And this club goes back to Chelsea yet again for Tammy Abraham?? Please just stop this torment Aresnal…. Leave chelsea players alone.