It’s always a bit strange when these kind of stories emerge months after the transfer deadline passed. It does make you wonder what the player or his agent are trying to achieve.
According to a story in Sport, Chelsea’s Brazilian forward Willian turned down an offer to move to Barcelona in the Summer. It does appear that Barca offered €35m to Chelsea, but it was the player who decided to be loyal and stay.
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It’s also worth noting that Willian’s contract expires at the end of this season, so it might be a way of keeping his name in the press. It’s not clear if he’s trying to use this as publicity to get a new Chelsea contract or find a new club.
It would make some sense if this was him trying to guilt trip Chelsea into giving him another deal. It’s almost like he’s saying he stayed despite the turmoil and transfer ban at the club, so he wants everyone to know he made some kind of sacrifice to help his team.
It could also be an attempt to appeal to new clubs by showing how loyal he was and the calibre of team that was interested in him.
Either way there must be some kind of motive behind it all for his camp to leak this story now. He turns 32 next Summer and it’s fairly well known that Chelsea don’t like to hand out big new deals to their players once they pass the age of 30.
He’s been a tremendous servant for Chelsea over the years, but a big decision will need to be made soon. He can start to discuss terms with foreign clubs from January, perhaps he’s hoping that Barcelona still want to sign him?