Willian has confessed that he wanted to leave Arsenal just three months after joining the club under Mikel Arteta. The 36-year-old winger, now playing for Olympiacos in Greece, moved to Arsenal from Chelsea in August 2020 on a three-year contract. He made the switch after his deal with Chelsea expired. During his first season at Arsenal, Willian made 25 Premier League appearances, scoring one goal and providing five assists, but his average playtime was limited to about an hour per match.
Despite his efforts, the Gunners endured a disappointing season, finishing eighth, while Chelsea secured fourth place and won the Champions League under Thomas Tuchel. After just one season, Willian reached a mutual agreement with Arsenal to terminate his contract. Reflecting on his time at Arsenal, Willian told Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel: “I wasn’t happy [at Arsenal], I wasn’t happy. That’s why I didn’t perform. I don’t want to go into the details. When I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well – new club, new mates, new project.
“But after three months, I said to my agent: ‘Please, I want to go’. I don’t want to speak bad about the club, because it is a big club. Arsenal has a big history. In football, big players played there before as well. But it didn’t work, it didn’t work. It was, of course, the most difficult time of my career. It was big money that I gave up. But sometimes money is not the most important thing in life. I think you need to be happy, get pleasure every day waking up in the morning to go to train. I wasn’t having that.”
Willian continued: “So I said to myself, with my family, I cannot stay here, I am not happy here. I have to leave, find a way out, leave the club, because if I stay I am going to stay the same. For me, it’s unfair to stay in a place that you don’t want to stay just because of the money. For me, it was that.”
In another interview with Sky Sports last year, Willian also admitted to regretting his decision to leave Chelsea, telling the Metro: “Yeah, I wish I’d never left. Of course it’s easy to say now, but when I stop and think about all the situations – I say to myself, “I wish I never left”. But that’s
life.”
