Arsenal: Two pros and two cons of signing Willian on a free

Arsenal are reportedly in the market for Willian when his contract runs out this summer. Here are two pros and two cons for such a signing.

This week, Arsenal were linked with the free transfer signing of Willian. There are some positives to this signing and quite a few negatives. Here are two reasons as to why signing him could pay off and two why it wouldn’t.

PROS

He’s a winner.

You can understand Mikel Arteta‘s mindset when looking into the potential of this signing. He’s a man who has won pretty much every trophy at club football. The only thing missing is the Champions League.

Signing Willian would be another addition to the dressing room who has a winning mentality and with Mikel Arteta looking to build a young team capable of challenging for the top prizes, having an experienced player who has been there and done it before and can give ready advice can only be a good thing.

A winger who scores goals and assists.

It’s something that Arsenal have been missing over the last few seasons, a winger who can score and assist. Willian’s stats of 58 goals and 75 assists at Chelsea are certainly not phenomenal by any stretch but they are better than what we have had.

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On another plus point, he will suit Arsenal’s style of play. He’s quick and skillful and putting him in a team with players of a similar nature will certainly cause a few defenses quite a few problems. He can also strike a free-kick very sweetly.

CONS

We should be looking at younger players.

Willian will be 32 at the start of next season. We may get one good season out of him, but we need to stop signing players in key positions as a stop-gap and start prioritizing players who will be at the club long-term.

We have done it with Sokratis, David Luiz, and Stephen Lichtsteiner to varying degrees of success, but when you consider as well that at 32, he won’t be a regular starter and he will be on wages of £100,000+, any potential signing won’t make sense when you consider the financial restraints at the club.

Do we need a new winger?

Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Bakary Saka, Nicholas Pepe are all are current wingers, and when you consider that  Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Emile Smith-Rowe can also play there, is there really any room for a 32-year-old player on high wages?

Sure, Mikel Arteta can rotate any of these players into other positions but unless one of the above players are on their way out at the end of the season then a move for Willian wouldn’t make any sense.