Paul Merson’s Willian comments shows he has not been paying any attention

Paul Merson, a Sky Sports pundit, has had his say in the Chelsea and Willian contract situation as the Blues winger looks set to leave the club in June.

The Brazil international has not signed a new contract with Chelsea after discussions faded away. The stumbling block was Willian wanting a 3-year contract extension, and Chelsea are only offering him 2 years, as reported by The Evening Standard.

Bare in mind that the club have a 1-year only extension policy for over 30s, and did not even break that for John Terry. David Luiz surprisingly got 2-years, but Willian’s demands for 3 are a little absurd.

So Merson the pundit has had his say, and quite frankly his words suggest that he has simply not been paying enough attention to the situation to form an opinion.

First off, as the Standard report, he says “Willian is very fortunate. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a brilliant player and I still think he’s one of Chelsea’s best players, there’s no question about that whatsoever, but I think he’s been fortunate in terms of getting away with the contract situation this season.

“He’s let his contract run down and no one has said a dicky-bird about it. We have seen so many players get plenty of stick over running down their contract and leaving on a free. Normally everybody goes mad but with Willian, because he’s played so well, it’s gone under the radar.

“He’s got no stick off the fans whatsoever and you have only got to look at the Christian Eriksen situation at Tottenham to know he’s been a bit fortunate with that.”

He clearly hasn’t seen social media activity on this. It is common knowledge that Willian has been harshly abused by some supporters on social media for this, and other situations. Perhaps not inside the stadium as much, but he has been abused and criticised A LOT.

Secondly, Merson ends his comments saying “There will be teams queuing around the block to sign him. He’s a special player and for me, Chelsea have dropped one by letting it get to this situation.”

Well, clearly Chelsea have not ‘dropped one’ here. They’ve actually tried to do the opposite by breaking their own rules to offer him a 2-year extension, but he’s rejected that. That’s on him, not the club.

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