Arsenal have to sell shocking signing to truly show ruthlessness

Mikel Arteta has a long way to go before he can reappear in Arsenal fans’ good books after overseeing a season destined for mid-table and without European football for the first time in 25 years. What happens this summer will shape the club’s future for every term. No two ways about it.

"“I think a project has its phases and I am telling you we are in a much better position today to be where we want to be very soon, if we do what we have to do,” the manager said. “But we have to be ruthless. There is no time to waste and there is a lot to do.”"

The key word in there is ‘ruthless’. A strong sentiment and one not a single supporter can disagree with. However, the difference being that some may argue said ruthlessness should start in the management department.

Of course, that won’t happen, yet, and the substantial gutting of the squad is set to begin as the final stretch of this forgettable season draws near. Who comes in and who goes out is what comes next.

Arsenal and Mikel Arteta have to sell shocking signing Willian to truly show ruthlessness

At a stage where your stock has never been lower, one way to indicate to supporters that you’re not trapped in a bubble, unaware of the ongoings and detached from reality, would be to admit error. See your mistakes and rectify them. You want to be ‘ruthless’?

Sell Willian.

If Arteta is truly aware of the magnitude of situation, one where every upcoming decision will play a major role in shaping the future but also helping to keep his job, then start by offloading those who offer nothing to the club now or at any point in the future. Those who have ceased only to take minutes off other players and have utilised their time on the pitch abysmally.

Whenever the curtain draws on Willian’s Arsenal career when his contract expires in 2058 and he still hasn’t scored a goal for the club, he will go down as one of the worst signings the club has ever made.

Not even 40 matches into his north London career and he’s already in that bracket. An atrocity of an acquisition, moving him on by hook or by crook, to MLS or otherwise, would go a long way to proving to fans who wait in terror for what is to come of this rebuild that you actually ‘get it’.

Arteta is not a stupid man. He has made decisions from the dugout that have suggested otherwise, yet this is clever mind who will know as well as supporters that Willian has been diabolical as a signing. No goals in 36 matches. Performances where he legitimately doesn’t care.

Shipping him off won’t be easy. He’s on big wages and his agent is probably having a meal with Edu somewhere as we speak, but however it comes off, truly show your ruthlessness. Get him out, admit your mistakes, and start making calls for the better of this football club. There is no better place to start.