Yeah it is true - you need to look at total financial outlay for value… the problem I have with him will be the wages + contract length + age… you figure you get a decent player year 1, maybe a squaddie year 2, and then you are carrying a loss year in effect.
Let’s compare… 20 million transfer plus 80k/week vs. 2 million sign-on plus 200k/week…
Approx: 32 million vs. 32 million… lol I honestly didn’t do that on purpose, it was just for illustrative purposes… assuming both are 3 years contracts obviously.
The problem with the latter scenario is that you have zero value and zero upside at the end… in the former, you potentially get 3 good years, with upside and a transfer (or new contract) at the end.
Given that we aren’t “close” and Willian wouldn’t be one of the final pieces, I’d rather steer to the 20-25 range and try for a starlet or two as well.
And this is coming from someone who has thought Willian was a tad underrated and under the radar the last couple of years.
The devil is in the details in terms of the wages, years, potential signing on fee, etc so its hard to say without knowing those details. He is currently on 120K-150K depending on what source you consult.
If the terms are reasonable, I like the idea of Willian for a 2-3 deal more than the idea of Coutinho on loan. Even if Barca subsidize part of Coutinho’s wages, the loan fee plus the rest of the wages are going to be equivalent to paying Willian for at least two years, if not three.
Willian is more likely to be content to be a rotational player getting some minutes on both wings, which is important given that we want to continue to feed minutes to Saka and Martinelli. If we sign Coutinho, he will expect to start every match, Arteta will discover like every other manager that he is by far the best at LW and not playing midfield in a 4-3-3, and then he’ll leave next summer and we’ll just have stunted Saka and Martinelli’s growth.
Got to be happy with this signing. Slots into the wide position nicely.
Can play from deep, has nuance on the ball and will link up well with auba/laca.
Can see him being someone we end up relying heavily on in games away from home or against the big sides because he has the technical ability to play under pressure and will work hard.
Willian on a free would be a very astute signing. He would provide some much-needed experience for our wide positions. Nelson, Saka and even Pepe are still inexperienced, although Pepe will be massive next season.
Also Willian always has a high number of created chances and a wicked right foot we could use for set pieces.
Next year is also going to be insane in terms of fixture congestion, all after a summer in which the players didn’t get a traditional break. Squad depth for every club playing in Europe is going to be a major issue. We just played Nketiah at RW in an important fixture (Villa) so we’re clearly a bit thin there.
We have much more important holes to fill so adding an experienced wideman relatively cheaply - especially in terms of current year expenditure - makes a lot of sense, allowing us to concentrate resources in other positions.
This is a key point. I dont think Willian is a player you’d be targeting as being a nailed on starter and will most likely be a player who has runs in and out of the team. However having his experience, his relative consistency (compared to our youngsters) and versatility to slot into different formations could be really important and even more so next season.
I mean he’ll be starting ahead of all the youths right now. But there’ll be room for some rotation. I imagine we’ll be bringing on Saka’s fresh legs for Willian’s around the 70 minute mark. Play the youth in Europa and League Cup games
