Former Arsenal winger Willian has refused to go into details about his exit from the club but has admitted that he ‘wasn’t happy’.
Willian opted to join Arsenal in a free transfer last summer, the winger having enjoyed a fruitful seven-season stint with Chelsea where he had won two Premier League winners medals, the FA Cup and the Europa League.
The Brazilian, however, opted for a move to North London where he would be handed the three year deal he desired, with his capture at the time considered a positive signing for Arsenal.
That positivity would prove wildly misguided though, the 33-year-old, starting just 16 league games last season and netting just once, his only goal in club colours coming on the opening day of the season against Fulham.
He has since opted for a move back to his native Brazil, returning to the side where he made his debut back in 2007, Corinthians.
Speaking to his new club’s official media channels, the former Shakhtar Donetsk winger admitted he ‘wasn’t happy’ at the North London club, but refused to ‘go into details’ about his departure or unhappiness.
“I really thought a lot, together with my family and close people. Unfortunately, my time at Arsenal was not good, I wasn’t happy at the club,” Willian told TV Corinthians.
“I don’t need to go into details, but I wasn’t happy and I thought that returning to Brazil was the best option.
“I studied some other opportunities, but I wanted to return to Corinthians, to my home, to be close to my family. It’s the club that projected me to the world, revealed me. The right time to come back was this.”
Gunners technical director, Edu, opened up this week on the club’s decision to sign the Brazilian from London rivals, as well as the decision to allow him to leave.
“The decision with Willian was to sign someone with experience, with a lot of Premier League games and to impact the team straight away,” he told Sky Sports.
“If you see the first game against Fulham which we played away, he started very well and everybody said ‘wow, now we have a proper team’, but the circumstances were different through the season – inconsistent, for Willian and everyone else, to be fair.
“When I listened to that and when Mikel listened to that we made the decision to say ‘okay, we don’t want a player here that is not 100 per cent comfortable, not 100 per cent with the team, it is my business to try and find the best solution.
“If it’s a mistake or not, it’s hard to say. You wouldn’t know if our season had been better with everyone being more consistent. But the most important thing is that we tried what we tried.”
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