Chelsea, Willian contract extension ‘stand-off’ hinges on length of terms

Unsurprisingly, the Willian contract situation is reportedly centered on the length of the new extension, with the player wanting two years (like Chelsea gave to David Luiz before he split) and the club only offering one (like Chelsea have given to all players over 30 not named David Luiz).

Matt Law’s report in the Telegraph claims something a bit more dramatic, a “bizarre” “stand-off”, but that requires a very literal reading of Willian’s response to a question about his contract, and the assumption of at least a miscommunication between the two sides.

“No, not yet.

“Honestly, I’m happy here. I feel happy to play for this club, but this situation is not in my hands. It’s in theirs. I wait for them. They know what I want, what I want to do. They already know, so I wait for them.”

It seems abundantly clear what Willian wants is two years. And Chelsea have clearly not made that offer. Whether we’ve made a one-year offer (as it is “understood” to have happened in the past two weeks) or no offer at all is fairly academic as far as Willian may be concerned.

He says he’s not pushing to leave, which would underline the idea that the situation hasn’t quite reached the dramatic crescendo of a “bizarre” “stand-off”.

“No, I don’t want to talk to [other teams] because I have a contract until the end of the season. I am a Chelsea player, but I just want to say the club know what I want to do.”

-Willian; source: Telegraph

Chelsea will apparently sit down to “clarify” the situation with Willian and his representatives, which seems like the obvious next step. Someone’s going to have to budge on their contract length stipulations however, that much seems quite clear already.