Barcelona have gone all 'Willian to Chelsea' by pinching Bordeaux winger Malcom from under the noses of Roma for around £36 million, just 24 hours after he looked certain to move to Italy.
In August 2013 it looked certain that Willian would move from Shakhtar Donetsk to Spurs. The north London club agreed a deal with the Ukrainians and flew in the winger for a medical, all looked likely to go through.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Brazilian moved to Chelsea, much to the anger of Spurs, with Jose Mourinho taking a dig at his London rivals, saying: "The best thing you can do is do the medical in secret. The player is fine, you can sign him."
Funnily enough Willian is central to a similar incident tonight.
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Last night it was reported that Malcom would join Roma from Bordeaux, just months after Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United were all linked with the winger, after the French side agreed a deal for him.
At the '11th hour' Barcelona put in a competing bid for him and, after bidding more than Roma, he has now been signed.
In a statement on the website the club announced, "FC Barcelona and Girondins de Bordeaux have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Malcom Filipe Silva de Oliveira. The operation will cost 41 million euros and 1 million in variables.
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"The player will sign with the Club for the next five seasons, until the end of the 2022/23 season."
The La Liga champions had previously made reported bids of upto £55 million to sign Willian but when Chelsea rejected their bid they looked elsewhere and moved for Malcom.
Barcelona have already signed Clement Lenglet and Arthur this summer to add to their title winning squad from last season but have lost Paulinho and Andres Iniesta from their first team.
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You definitely can't assume transfers are done until everything has been announced, especially if Willian has anything to do with it!
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