“I should have stayed” – Former Arsenal star regrets move after Arteta promises

Willian has spilled the beans on what happened in his disaster season at Arsenal after some good years with Chelsea in the Premier League.

Willian was a stalwart for Chelsea for many years, but his career after that saw him bounce around a bit, taking in two spells at Fulham and a period back in Brazil.

While he had an Indian summer with the Whites, his other Premier League spell, with Arsenal, didn’t go so well. Speaking on John Obi Mikel’s podcast this week, the winger explained how that move turned sour so quickly.

Willian explains how Arteta promises came to nothing

“I met Arteta, I met everyone there. And they said ‘we want you to be the main guy’. 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’,” Willian explained on Mikel’s podcast.

“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.”

It seems there are no hard feelings, and both Arsenal and Willian had happier years ahead. It just was one of those moves that felt off right from the very start.