Arsenal to pay Willian £220,000 a week despite staff cuts2

uneasydaz

Well-Known Member
Willian will earn an astonishing £220,000 a week at Arsenal after he completes his free transfer from Chelsea, with the contract expected to be signed off by Sunday.

Sportsmail can reveal a deal in principle has been agreed for some time and the 32-year-old Brazilian will be rewarded handsomely.

Willian’s basic weekly salary will be lower than at Chelsea, but once a huge signing-on fee is factored in — along with loyalty payments and other bonuses throughout the three-year contract’s duration — the staggering mark will be hit.

The vast sums involved raise questions after Arsenal’s announcement last week that they are proposing to make 55 members of staff redundant.

Insiders say Willian’s unveiling was put back because of the ‘poor optics’ if it had followed hot on the heels of the job-cuts statement. Arsenal deny that is the case.

Nevertheless, to commit to spending what could end up being around £35million on a veteran player shortly after the redundancy proposal is bound to go down badly. The deal is also set to feature an option for a fourth year.

Sources added that only an unexpected turn of events would stop the deal being concluded this weekend, meaning Willian — who won the Premier League twice in a glittering Chelsea spell — can shortly start training with his Arsenal team-mates ahead of the new campaign, which starts on September 12.

He would have got nowhere near that money at Chelsea,’ a source explained.

‘The signing-on fee reflects that it is a free transfer and if he sees out the duration it’s a great deal for him.’
 
Good for him! I saw an interesting take on footballer's salaries on Fesshole the other day - Football is the only industry where they get a fair share of the money and people hate them for it. If Sky are paying billions for the rights it's only fair the players get a good chunk of the dough. People aren't buying subscriptions to watch the chairman and backroom staff.
 
Willian will earn an astonishing £220,000 a week at Arsenal after he completes his free transfer from Chelsea, with the contract expected to be signed off by Sunday.

Sportsmail can reveal a deal in principle has been agreed for some time and the 32-year-old Brazilian will be rewarded handsomely.

Willian’s basic weekly salary will be lower than at Chelsea, but once a huge signing-on fee is factored in — along with loyalty payments and other bonuses throughout the three-year contract’s duration — the staggering mark will be hit.

The vast sums involved raise questions after Arsenal’s announcement last week that they are proposing to make 55 members of staff redundant.

Insiders say Willian’s unveiling was put back because of the ‘poor optics’ if it had followed hot on the heels of the job-cuts statement. Arsenal deny that is the case.

Nevertheless, to commit to spending what could end up being around £35million on a veteran player shortly after the redundancy proposal is bound to go down badly. The deal is also set to feature an option for a fourth year.

Sources added that only an unexpected turn of events would stop the deal being concluded this weekend, meaning Willian — who won the Premier League twice in a glittering Chelsea spell — can shortly start training with his Arsenal team-mates ahead of the new campaign, which starts on September 12.

He would have got nowhere near that money at Chelsea,’ a source explained.

‘The signing-on fee reflects that it is a free transfer and if he sees out the duration it’s a great deal for him.’

He has to think of his family. A million pounds every 4 or 5 weeks will help.
 
Everywhere I’ve seen has said it’s £100k a week he’s getting
Arsenal can’t afford £220k a week with Ozil sitting there and Aubameyang about to get a bumper deal
 
The team is Arsenals's core business. If the team does well it goes a long way towards everything going well. They have to keep spending money on the team, a lot of money down there. Some money might be well spent, some might not. Big money spent on Aubameyang looks sensible. Maybe money has to be spent on Ozil to cut their losses. Willian? Terrific player but maybe a gamble at his age.
 
I think Willian is a good player, but if Arsenal have any serious thoughts about being a contendor for the league - they really need to get better.
 
£220k for a 32 year old is mental especially if Chelsea were only going to pay him a fraction of that.

Then there’s the redundancy issue, even average of £1000 a week is a quarter of what they’re paying him.

If I were Arteta I’d be putting my foot down, they are getting slated, and rightly so, for the redundancies.
 
Maybe it's easy for me to say not being in that financial position but I'd feel fucking awful if I was ozil etc pocketing that dough whilst ordinary workers get laid off.
 
He has to think of his family. A million pounds every 4 or 5 weeks will help.

Seen a bit on line where he is getting £18.75m signing on spread over the 3 yr and it’s performance related so probably nearer £1m every 2 weeks
 
Arsenal used to be a respected club, won titles and had world class players. Now they’re just a retirement home for Chelsea players! Seems since they got that fancy new stadium they’ve been skint! Clearly not if they can offer a 32 year old £220k a year! Totally lost their way!
 
Arsenal are totally leaderless and clueless, they have zero forward planning and seem to throw money at players who are entering the later stages of their career. They clearly had no succession planning for Wenger leaving and held on to him far too long.
 
This is all that is wrong with modern football. Getting rid of staff who need, probably, A basic salary to survive from arsenal to pay a player who is towards the end of his career and not even that great an insane about of money. Sure Williams monthly wage would of covered most of the job loses
 
What a gesture it would be if he donated one week’s wages to ensure around 8-10 of those staff kept their jobs for another year, by which time we should be over the worst of the pandemic. And then encouraged other top earners at the club to do likewise, thus saving all jobs.

The Arsenal players took a pay cut on the understanding that doing so would mean there would be no job losses so It wouldn’t make a difference as the jobs would go anyway.
 
Playing devils advocate but the staff that are losing their jobs it might not be for finical reasons and yes it’s disgusting in this climate
 
Does nobody at Arsenal see the absolute shit show that is there defence or central midfield? I presume not let's throw more money at an attacking wide player
 
He has to think of his family. A million pounds every 4 or 5 weeks will help.
When you see the staggering amount of money teams in the EPL and other top European leagues are able to spend on players it should be a reality check for Rangers fans these clubs are shopping in Harrods while SG and RW are trawling the charity shops looking for bargains
 
Back in the day Arsenal were a well run club and seemed to act with dignity and respect. A very "traditional" club.

Modern day Arsenal seems to be a club with a collection of weirdo's who go about their business in a pretty wanky way - on and off the field.

The club seem to have lost quite a bit of their identity. I know some of their more old-school hardcore fans and they are very disillusioned.

On the whole, Arsenal are just a bit meh.
 
Absolute farce that so many people get made redundant and they then go and spend this on a players wages.

The whole Financial Fair Play needs reviewed, if a club can't afford to pay their non-playing staff but can afford that, questions should be asked.
 
As bad as it sounds, staff don’t win you silverware, higher calibre of player do however and Willian is far better than the vast majority in that Arsenal team

Have to agree. Have to say if it was us in that position I think alot of morality would go out the window. Very few of us would be sitting happy with no new quality signings if it meant keeping office and kitchen staff in a job.
 
I heard a rumour him and Marcus Rashford are campaigning for free school meals for all the starving children in the UK. They're writing to all the MPs at Westminster and they're paying for the stamps themselves provided HMRC agree that they are tax deductable.
 
Good for him. He was going to accept £100k a week at Chelsea if Chelsea offered a 3 year deal but it’s against the Club’s policy, he’s going to Arsenal and more than tripling his guaranteed income over the next 3 years.
 
Worst run in what sense?

Commercially, they're arguably the best run club in the UK.

Consistently post high profits and carry very little debt, if any.

On the field, well...that's another matter.
You answered it - complete lack of strategic consistency on the football front. Same issue as Manchester United. Fine if you’re interested in their commercial operations as opposed to the football. Liverpool have shown you can do both.
 
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