A potential candidate for the weirdest signing of the summer has emerged as Fulham are reportedly ‘interested’ in signing ex-Arsenal flop Willian.
You can be forgiven if you completely forgot about the 33-year-old given that he has been off playing in Brazil with Corinthians over the past year.
Willian was linked with Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 before their London rivals Chelsea have beat them to the signing. With karma being a thing, the Blues have been ‘hijacked’ a few times themselves this summer.
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The midfielder enjoyed a successful seven years at Stamford Bridge before Arsenal signed him in 2020.
And what a colossal waste of time that proved to be. Willian scored once in 37 outings before his contract was mutually terminated.
Speaking last December, Willian admitted that he wanted to leave the Gunners “after three months”:
“I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy. That’s why I didn’t perform. I don’t want to go into the details,” Willian told Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel Five.
“When I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well – new club, new mates, new project.
“But after three months, I said to my agent: ‘Please, I want to go’. I don’t want to speak bad about the club, because it is a big club. Arsenal has a big history.
“In football, big players played there before as well. But it didn’t work, it didn’t work. It was, of course, the most difficult time of my career.
“It was big money that I gave up. But sometimes money is not the most important thing in life. I think you need to be happy, get pleasure every day waking up in the morning to go to train. I wasn’t having that.
“So I said to myself, with my family, I cannot stay here, I am not happy here. I have to leave, find a way out, leave the club, because if I stay I am going to stay the same. For me, it’s unfair to stay in a place that you don’t want to stay just because of the money. For me, it was that.”
His time at Corinthians has not gone too well either. He only scored once in 35 outings across all competitions last season.
GOAL are now reporting that Fulham are ‘interested’ in signing him this summer.
Newly-promoted Fulham are said to be ‘already negotiating the terms of a possible transfer’.
His contract at Corinthians does not expire until the end of 2023 but his deal does include a release clause.
