Willian will leave Fulham this summer after rejecting the club’s offer of a new contract, according to the Evening Standard.
The Brazilian winger was a revelation at Craven Cottage after returning to London last September having cancelled his contract at Corinthians. The 34 year-old scored five goals and added six assists in 30 appearances across all competitions as Marco Silva’s side finished tenth on their return to the top flight and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
But the former Chelsea and Arsenal winger was disappointed with Fulham’s offer of a one-year deal, with a mutual option of a further twelve months, and wages believed to be around £50,000-a-week. The Whites were unwilling to negotiate over improved terms and Willian has began negotiations with other English sides.
The news comes as a significant blow to the Cottagers, especially with uncertainty surrounding the future of Israeli winger Manor Solomon – linked with a possible move to Tottenham – and Marco Silva yet to commit his long-term future to the club. The head coach said publicly at the end of last season that he would wait to see whether the club’s ambition matched his before deciding to extend his existing deal in SW6, which has twelve months to run.
This is an absolute disgrace! This should have been made a priority! How can we not get this over the line, he wants to stay and we just had to give him what he wanted. We won’t be able to get a player for free that did or will do what Willian did. Makes no sense for the club to fork out money for a player like “Odoi” and pay him a silly salary as opposed to giving star man Willian what he wants. This decision is sad, so far things aren’t looking good for Fulham don’t care what anyone says. There’s way too much instability and doubt surrounding key players and the manager, I know people say it’s early but this is not a good start at all. We need a serious and strong end to the summer transfer window if we even want to think about playing prem football next season because watch, all our rivals are currently more stable then us. I love my FFC but these lot are going to cause me a mental breakdown if we don’t get basic decisions like this right going forward.
Once again, we may prove to be too clever for our own good. But if Silva stays, I believe we’ll recruit well, and won’t feel the loss as much. If Silva leaves….
What are we doing????
Very foolish decision – he was a revelation – he should have been offered a two year deal and will, doubtless, play well for another Pl club. Shortsighted. I think we will struggle next season.
Words fail me here, this has Tony Khan’s paws all over it. Willian was nothing short of extraordinary last season, but this is FFC and we do have a real talent of not seeing the obvious.
Willian will be 35 years old before the season starts. After a very good season last year, you can imagine that he has an inflated sense of his value right now. Every reasonable effort should be made to keep him, but this is not the guy to overpay. Silva is the guy that we should be overpaying.
I am flabbergasted a great loss, we should have negotiated and done a deal. IHe wanted to stay, Silva wanted him to stay, the fans wanted him to stay. What went wrong can we try again or is it too late. I feel let down by the club
Wonderful season but nearly 35. Can’t build a team around him. Different vibes from this time last year when happy to be loved and playing. Now all about the money. Sad
What the hell is going on here with players not wanting to renew contracts or want to move on we should be Starting with the Manager and make sure Silva gets what he wants in his new contract then hopefully the rest will follow Yet again it’s becoming a bore now every pre season the same because of a certain individual who is in charge of our great club
Yes!! He had a good season but but but he is also 35 yrs old.The club simply can not give him a two yr deal here !! I support the club for only giving him a ine yr with the club option for the second.
I suspect there maybe more to this than first meets the eye. This is the man that terminated his own contract at Arsenal and in so doing, gave up a two year contract worth a reported 240k per week. I’m struggling to accept that this is solely about money. Maybe he knows more about the futures of other personnel in the club than we currently do?
Khan pressing the self-destruct button. An integral part of the team last season. So, what’s changed?
Willian was a class apart last season and no PL defence could cope with him. So, if we are prepared to lose him we had better be very confident that we have someone extraordinary lined up to replace him. The uncertainty surrounding Silva just undermines confidence that that is the case. I have no fingers left to cross.
This club needs Villian more than he needs us and the same for several personall. OK at 35, a one plus one contract could be acceptable but not at 50k. I get it that we will never be able to compete with with bigger clubs but on salary but we should have doubled that at least….and that is not a lot to most PL clubs.
We finished top half. Got more money back by it and should push on to improve on that. So why are our management not on board again Villian, Tosin, Robbo and Rodak all won’t sign extentions and this talk of Marco is all upsetting and dangerous. Again you need to spend to to progress and someone like Marco will go if the club do not come up with the goods or ambition.
I keep saying Tony Khan hasn’t got a clue and he keeps proving me right I just hope we don’t lose Marco, once again we are being linked to every man and his dog and we are still waiting for our first signing, they are charging us fans exorbitant prices to watch our team yet they are always trying to bring in players on the cheap,Willian deserved a 2 year contract he was one of our best players last season.