Chelsea and Arsenal look set to go head to head over highly rated Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Willian in their sights, with a view to a £25million transfer to Stamford Bridge this summer.
The 22-year-old Brazilian, who can play as an attacking midfielder or as a winger, has produced some eye-catching performances for the Ukranian champions this season, helping the big-spending Eastern Europeans to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Willian started his career ar Brazilian giants, Corinthians in 2006, where he made just 37 appearances before Shakhtar weighed in with a hefty €19million bid for the tricky winger, who was just 18 when he moved to the Ukraine .
The slight Brazilian, who is just 5’8″, has earned a reputation for a flowing style of play; he is comfortable playing with either foot, and his pacy dribbling style and positional play mean he often finds himself in goal-scoring situations, helping to explain his decent return of more than a goal every 7 games from the wing.
The London clubs won’t however be alone in admiring the Brazilian youngster, as Pep Guardiola, is rumoured to be considering his own approach for the pacy midfielder, to add to Barcelona’s already outstanding attack.
Roman Abramovich appears to be back in big-spending mode, after the £75million signings of David Luiz and Fernando Torres in January, and the Rouble-tastic Russian will have to dig deep again to sign Willian, who would cost somewhere around the £25million mark. Were Arsene to spend this much money it would be amazing but perhaps not completely unthinkable.
Magdalena Graaf is sensational. Click the image below to launch the gallery…
