Arsenal’s highly-rated winger Chris Willock looks set to join Portuguese giants Benfica this summer on a permanent deal.

That’s according to recent reports in Record.pt, which have said that the 19-year-old has been in Lisbon since Thursday to complete contract negotiations. This has the potential to be a good career decision for the Englishman, with Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund among the clubs linked with his signature.

The hope is that he’ll play for their B side initially before eventually earning a place among their first-team to flourish in Liga NOS with the domestic champions.

Willock made two first-team appearances for Arsenal, both of which were substitute appearances last season during EFL Cup victories over Nottingham Forest and Reading.

He was expecting more of an opportunity among Arsene Wenger’s first-team plans last term and Reiss Nelson’s impending step-up next season seems to have had a knock-on effect.

Willock is a talented youngster and it’ll be sad to see him go, though it looked increasingly likely that he would leave in truth having already been offered a contract extension months before the season ended.

His brother, Joe, is also set to depart and after so many years of development, Arsenal’s lack of first-team assurances on this occasion seems to have cost them another talented youngster with plenty of potential.