This Thursday, The Mirror reported that there are several English clubs keen on signing former Arsenal forward Chris Willock.
The 19-year-old, who signed for Benfica last summer, isn’t getting much game time in Portugal and would be attracting interest from Premier League and Championship sides, including Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Leeds United and Milwall.
Now there’s good news for Leeds United and the others, because according to updates from the Portuguese press today, the player should indeed be leaving Benfica on a loan deal next month.
O Jogo reports that Benfica want the youngster to play more regularly, and since he still wasn’t able to debut for their first team, they should send him somewhere else, with a foreign league being the priority.
If leaving Portugal is the number one option, it wouldn’t be a surprise that they will let Willock go back to his home country, especially in case there are really so many clubs interested in him.
O Jogo claims there’s only one condition for Benfica to agree the loan, and that’s the guarantee of game time. They want him to get ‘playing rhythm’, and shouldn’t be sending him somewhere where he’s unlikely to have regular minutes.
That’s why it’s very likely that a Championship club could offer them that, and the fight for promotion is something that could certainly favour Leeds United in that case. Or would Bournemouth and Newcastle, both tasked with avoiding relegation, be concerned about giving a loanee enough minutes?
That doesn’t seem very plausible. Advantage Leeds United.
