'I wasn't happy at Arsenal – I told my agent I wanted to leave after three months'

Willian realised he had made a massive error of judgement by joining Arsenal – just months after signing. The Gunners’ capture of the Brazilian on a free transfer from Chelsea in 2020 initially looked like a real coup.

The Blues had offered the Brazilian attacker a two-year deal compared to a three-year contract from Arsenal, which proved to be the clincher. However, Willian’s move to the Emirates proved to be a nightmare for the player, whose contract was cancelled after one season.

Had Willian, who now plays in Greece with Olympiacos, had his way, he would have left after just three months. In an interview with Rio Ferdinand’s Five YouTube channel in 2021, Willian admitted he didn’t enjoy playing under Mikel Arteta, who was in the early days of his Gunners reign after replacing Unai Emery.

He said: “I wasn’t happy, that’s why I didn’t perform. 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.”

Following the end of the Covid season of 2020/21, Willian, now 36, rejoined former club Corinthians before returning to London with Fulham in 2022. He spent two years at Craven Cottage before leaving for Greece in September.

“It was big money that I gave up [to leave Arsenal],” he added. “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.

“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.”

Explaining his decision to leave Chelsea, despite having a contract offer on the table, he said: “It was difficult to decide because I wanted to stay at Chelsea.

“But I wanted a three-year contract and Chelsea said no. I decided to join Arsenal and also because before we had conversations with Edu and Mikel [Arteta] as well. They showed me a good project, they showed me a lot of good stuff that they want to do. It was because of that.”