Welcome to the summer silly season! It’s time to take a spin through the latest churnings in the Arsenal FC transfer rumor mill. Let’s jump right in with the latest on Willian, an acquisition last summer transfer window that proved to be a total bust.
He only scored one goal, across all competitions, and it’s on the Emirates club to find a way to offload his massive salary this summer. MLS club Inter Miami, owned by David Beckham, emerged as a potential destination for the Brazilian, as manager Phil Neville looks to improve his side.
Willian's move to Inter Miami has fallen through after the club finally got around to watching his highlight reel from last season.
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 1, 2021
However, The Sun reported that his excessive wage demands of about £8.7 million a year, or £167,000 per week, more than double that of top earning player Gonzalo Higuain, kiboshed the move. Now the 32-year-old will need to look elsewhere.
The Willian transfer saga has created a lot of clever and funny tweets, and one such example is above.
Turning to Ben White, we’ve been hearing for days, maybe even a week or so that the Brighton & Hove Albion player of the year is set to move to north London, but it still hasn’t been announced.
However, football.london states that a deal for the England central defender is “all but completed.” It looks like it won’t be formalized and finalized until after England is done competing at Euro 2020.
England take on Ukraine in the quarterfinals later today, with a potential semifinal appearance on Wednesday and a possible final match a week from tomorrow.
Finally, Arsenal defender William Saliba is set to go put on loan yet again, this time to Marseille. That’s according to The Athletic, whose report states:
“There is believed to have been interest in Saliba from England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, with Marseille, Newcastle United and Lille emerging as the leading contenders for his signature. The France youth international is understood to have picked Marseille and the Ligue 1 side will now try to agree a deal with Arsenal, which should not be problematic.”
One wonders if Saliba will ever play for Arsenal. He was signed two years ago for €30m from Saint-Etienne but he still hasn’t played a competitive game in a Gunners shirt, and has instead gone out on loan twice, once at Saint-Etienne, then again at Nice.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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