Arsenal directors are understood to be ‘amazed’ at Willian’s decision to tear up his huge contract and sign for Corinthians in the coming days.
That’s according to Sky Sports, who claim that Willian has decided to rip up his contract and leave the club without receiving a pay-off.
Willian warns around £240,000-a-week at Arsenal, and could have received a pay-off for the next two years of that deal – but that’s not what he wants.
Instead, he is saving Arsenal more than £20million with this decision and will take a 70% pay cut to rejoin Brazilian side Corinthians.
The Arsenal hierarchy are stunned by the gesture, with not many players in the modern game willing to sacrifice two years of huge wages just to leave a club.
Willian is understood to have made the decision because he wants to leave English football with his ‘head held high’ having first arrived in the UK with Chelsea way back in 2013.
Willian simply knows that his move to Arsenal hasn’t worked out for anybody, and he just wants to move on and let Arsenal plan for life without him.
The Gunners handed Willian a huge three-year deal last summer, and he managed just one goal and five assists in 25 Premier League outings last season.
Now 33, Willian wasn’t going to carve out a first-team role this season, and will rejoin Corinthians – the side he left for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2007.
This may change the perception of Willian in the eyes of Arsenal fans, as he isn’t just sitting picking up his wages and not playing, though his performances in his one season with the Gunners did not impress.
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