Chelsea ‘open to selling’ Willian as Barcelona talks continue — reports

FC Barcelona has refused to budge on their interest in Willian, even after their first bid which was north of £50m was rejected by Chelsea or so says the “BREAKING” report by Sky Sports News and their well, often conveniently, placed sources.

For now, there is not a lot to go on from Sky except this tweet but it seems to fit in well with the report by Matt Law of the Telegraph who claims that Chelsea are in fact open to the idea of selling Willian, as there are only two years left his contract, he’s about to turn 30, and this very well may be the last transfer window where the Blues are in a position to demand big money for him.

On the Spanish side of the reports, Xavier Muñoz of Mundo Deportivo also claims that Barcelona are continuing to work the Willian transfer. The full report by Mundo Deportivo states that Barcelona could end up making a cash-plus-player offer in order to entice Chelsea to reduce their €80 million (approx. £70 million) asking price. Those players include names like future Ballon d’Or nominee Andre Gomes, Rafinha and Paulinho, who shares the same representative as Willian, Kia Joorabchian.

Of course, Kia Joorabchian is not only the representative of Paulinho and Willian but he is also the man behind Philippe Coutinho’s mega money move from Liverpool to Barcelona and the Spanish giants must be hoping that Joorabchian will help them complete the transfer of yet another Brazilian from an English club to them.

Another Spanish journalist who has hopped on the Willian to Barcelona train is Gerard Romero of RAC1 and according to him, Willian continues to be a real option for Barcelona and that their interest in him is concrete, although we should probably hold our horses for now as Romero also states that the discussion between the clubs is still in its preliminary stages.

Whatever the case may be, the €80 million price tag set by Chelsea was a bit too steep to begin with but if we really want to sell, there could not be a better time to do it. Barcelona, unlike Manchester United are not our league rivals and Chelsea aren’t even in the Champions League this season, so selling him to Barcelona seems a way better option than Mourinho’s Manchester United.

Here’s hoping Chelsea have learned their lesson from Nemanja Matic sale to Manchester United and won’t do the same mistake we did last time. Matic was linked with Juventus before his eventual move to the Manchester club, yet we chose to sell him to a direct rival. Hopefully, things are different this time around.