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Williams to Barca, but Martinelli posts up just as well…

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo It’s funny, you know, because whilst lots of people have been hot on Nico Williams, that has never really permeated the football side of my brain.

So when Ornstein drops a confirmation that Williams wants Barcelona and that Barca are sorting out the details on a deal, I say “absolutely fine by me”.

I think it’s because of the Danny Welbeck Syndrome that I developed back when Welbz had signed for us. Remember when he used to go away on international duty and always have an impact? I’m pretty sure there was a couple of tournaments and a particular time when he was at The Arsenal in which he would be an awesome impact sub for England. But he’d come back to us and whilst we had one or two great moments (remember that header in the dying seconds against Leicester City back when they won the league? That was good times…) for us, he never really exploded like we all hoped he would when he left United.

I feel like Nico Williams could be that too. Looks like an absolute beast playing for Spain, but hardly hit the heady highs for Bilbao last season, did he? Five goals and five assists in 29 La Liga appearances last year. 11 goals and seven assists in all competitions, with a total of 45 games played and over 3,000 minutes. So he had amle playing time. “One season shalt not define the man” I said to myself, so I had a look at his 2023/24 season and that one he fared better from an assist point of view, with eight goals and 18 assists in 37 games. And just for good measure I had a look at 2022/23 – nine goals, four assists.

Now, the kid is only 22, so clearly there’s room for him to bang, but given those numbers and the supposed astronomical wages he’d be wanting, this deal always felt a little ‘meh’ to me. Gabby Martinelli is a year older and his stats look like this:

2024/25 = 10 goals and six assists (played a fair few more games and minutes though, to be fair)

2023/24 = eight goals and five assists

2022/23 = 15 goals and seven assists

So over a three season period we’re talking Williams on 28 goals and 29 assists over that three year period. Gabby had 33 goals and 18 assists. So our Brazilian edges it on end product for goals, whilst Williams clear has the better output on teeing up his teammates. But I haven’t factored in the Spanish Tax i.e. our league is faster and more physical, so we don’t know if Williams’ end product would translate to our league.

I’ll not go in to much more detail, but quite why Barca want him is anyone’s guess. They play Yamine Lamal on the right wing – and he ain’t losing his spot. They then have Raphinha on the left wing, who has just posted up a 37 goal and 25 assist ratio in all competitions. I get that, at 28-turning-29-in December he might only have a couple of years left at the top in that position, but I think it’s a hard sell to either him or Williams to do a job share on that left hand side.

I guess the counter argument to that is that we would be asking exactly the same of him, because personally I’d want to be starting the season with Martinelli, to bed in somebody like Williams. But the point is moot; let him go to Barca and hopefully it costs them more money and keeps them trying frantically to look for another ‘financial lever’ to pull.

Rodrygo could be the one we wait on, which I think does make sense, although I suspect we have to see how the Club World Cup plays out first. They play Al-Hilal tomorrow night and if he’s played on the right, or if he doesn’t get much of a start at all, it could all work in our favour. If Madrid and Alonso aren’t going to give him what they want and play him on the right – and there’s no intention so far that this will happen – then perhaps we can be in a good position to strike.

I also think Madrid will probably want to move quickly, because I suspect they’ll want to use the money to further augment their squad. They’ve just signed this lad from River Plate, Franco Mastantuono, but I’ll be damned if I know whether he goes straight into their starting XI. The next few games in that gawd-awful competition with half empty stadiums might give us a bit of an insight into Xabi Alonso’s thinking.

For us it will be a case of waiting, but to be honest it’s not like we don’t have players in that position, so I think Arsenal will be fine with that. We – as you and I both know – have to get other areas of the pitch sorted and whereas this time last week we had talk of expectations of movements this week, we’re yet to see anything remotely concrete come up. So I am thinking we might be getting close to frustration point – for us the fans, but probably also the club too.

Still, at least the next season’s Premier League fixtures come out tomorrow, so that gives us something else top worry about!

And with that, I shall bid you adieu for today.

Back tomorrow.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.