Ex-Arsenal star hits out at Mikel Arteta over ‘broken promises’ after leaving Chelsea was ‘big mistake’
Former Arsenal star Willian has hit out at head coach Mikel Arteta when reflecting on his time at the Emirates and leaving Chelsea.
Willian moved to the Premier League in 2013 and made just shy of 350 appearances for Chelsea in his seven seasons at Stamford Bridge.
The Brazil international was a huge asset for Chelsea, but he left in 2020 as he joined Arsenal on a three-year deal.
Despite this, this spell did not work for anyone involved and Willian left Arsenal by mutual consent after a single year at the Emirates.
“I made a big mistake leaving Chelsea…”
Willian has later had spells at Corinthians, Fulham, Olympiacos and Gremio, and he has now spoken out against Arsenal when reflecting on his time at the club.
“I met them couple of times. I met Arteta, I met everyone there. And they said ‘we want you to be the main guy’,” Willian said on The Obi One podcast.
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“Arteta said to me: ‘We’re going to play like this and I want you to be the main guy, I will build the team around you, I want to give you the key to the club’.
“When I heard that, obviously I love Chelsea but I was in the last year of my contract, I was 32, and I was thinking three more years in London, stay with my family in London, they love London. And then I decided.
“To be honest I should have stayed but at that moment I was thinking maybe the best solution is to go there, and I signed for three years there but it was not good.”
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William also feels that there were “broken promises” at Arsenal after he “made a big mistake leaving Chelsea”.
“I got frustrated,” Willian added.
“I am not saying it is their fault, but when you heard a lot of things and then you join the club, things that are not the same as what they told me, I got frustrated straight away.
“Three months later I said to my agent I want to leave, and that I made a big mistake leaving Chelsea.”
When asked whether Arsenal or Arteta ‘broke promises’ after he joined, Willian responded: “It was more due to what I heard.
“I got frustrated from that because when I was there I saw some situations that I said to myself, it’s not going to change.
“But it didn’t work and because of that I couldn’t play well or perform because I wasn’t happy. When you are not happy you cannot perform. Money cannot buy happiness. It was the best contract of my life there, but I wasn’t happy.”
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