Joel Campbell confirms he left Arsenal at his own request

Arsene Wenger was given a lot of stick for letting the Arsenal striker Joel Campbell go out on loan to Sporting Lisbon, despite not having brought in a suitable replacement (at the time), but now the player himself has admitted that it was his own decision to leave Arsenal in the search for more regular playing time.

Campbell told Costa Rican newspaper Nacion: “I made that decision because I’m at an important stage in my football life, an ideal age to grow.”

“When I realised I was not going to play as much as I wanted I thought it would be better to go on loan. In reality going on loan has been my request.

“I have ambition, I want to play, and I love football. Truth is I don’t feel comfortable not playing every Sunday. I don’t want to settle for less.

‘Another person could stay at Arsenal, have a good wage, live in a nice city and not playing, but I prefer to leave comfort aside and fight for my dreams. I want to prove I have what is needed to play the game.

“The coach told me he would have liked me to stay, but playing is my priority and if I’m not 100% on his plans then I prefer to go on loan and play football.”

What Wenger said… “I believe that he’s a bit of a victim of the size of the squad. He is now at an age where he needs to play more regularly and I don’t rule out that he comes back here and plays. He has gone to Sporting Lisbon and I think it’s an interesting championship. Portugal always has an interesting championship and let’s see how it goes for him.”

You have to admire the fact that Campbell believes he is good enough to be in the first team every week, and if he can’t get that at Arsenal then he is making the best decision for his career. The only think I don’t understand is why Wenger doesn’t think he is good enough to be a regular starter, after his improved performances last season….

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37 Comments

  1. This Lewandoski guy keeps scoring goals. A great Striker he is.Welcome to the emirates Lucas and Mustaphi.

    1. u mispelt lewandowski and mustafi

      but hey for every crispiano ruenaldo there is also a emmeel hestkey

    2. FaNS asking for lewandoski should get real. No disrespect , but why would he want to come to Arsenal. There is no need for Wenger to even make a bid.

      why don’t people get that? is same way we told Juventus that Sanchez is off limits. Don’t even bother making a bid cause we shall not sell him.

      Perez , Lacazette etc are exactly the type of players we can attract. People blame the manager saying we need and Aguero type of striker. come on get real guys. stop the fantasies. Where would u find and Aguero type of striker. Is not as if there are 20 Aguero’s in the Market. Just look at Antony Martial who’s fee could go to £75 million. Top strikers are really not available.

  2. i thinks its just unlucky that he’s not as valued by the manager as he might be under another. This happens in football he comes across as a nice lad. I wish him every success

  3. Campbell and Chambers are on
    low wages so are ok to go
    some where else.
    However Walcott Wellbeck Wilshere
    Gibbs and Chamberlain are on much higher
    salaries so will be much harder to get rid of.
    Even Sanogo is on double Chambers salary
    so will run down his contract this season.

    1. Of course. But WHY are Walcott and Gibbs and Chamberlain on SO MUCH higher wages.

      Because they are Wenger favorites. There was absolutely no reason that Campbell should be earning so much less than Walcott or Gibbs. Neither player has done anything to warrant high salaries.

      And Campbell has shown more promise than many of Wenger’s pet players.

      Don’t fool yourself. Campbell is on loan MAINLY because Wenger does not value him so highly. Everything else is just noise.

  4. I’ve followed dude ever since we signed him. Through all his loan spells. Always admire his skill and approach to the game. And saying this made me like him even more…”Another person would stay at Arsenal, have a good wage, live in a nice city and not playing, but I prefer to leave comfort aside and fight for my dreams. I want to prove I have what is needed to play the game”
    This, is passion folks…

    1. It’s a dig at the garbage core amean English core, and a very valid one too..

      Most are always quick to criticize the manager for holding back the while turning a blind eye to those players who in my opinion are nothing but parasites to club.

      Hardworking players like mertasacker and giroud are more often than not bear the brunt of the criticism while the English core are given just a mere slap on the wrist with the usual adage about “young and having time on their side to improve”.
      I feel very sorry for joel Campbell knowing his situation is more to do with politics than football, however the manager wasn’t the one who drafted the rules so I can’t blame him.

      1. Yes it is a veiled dig 🙂
        “I am going out to earn my way
        the rest of you fat cats are staying
        to get paid heaps for doing b’all”.
        A parting shot across the bow on the way out. 🙂

        1. I think you are partly right. I don’t know if it is parting shot. But I do believe he was trying to send a message of sorts.

          Sad that Campbell must go on loan to get playing time. He is SO MUCH better than Walcott is or was.

      2. @jamaican_gooner
        Very well put Gooner. Theres always excuses for Aaron, Ox and Jack, as well as playing time, to the determent of the squad, no matter how lousy they play…

    2. OT. Debuchy is contracted until
      2019 and he is already 31?
      He will keep his 75k p/w salary
      where ever he goes and he wants to stay in London.
      Jenkinson is still injured so probably another el cheapo temporary
      signing to fill the gap like Tisserand from Monaco on the way.

  5. He should have handed in transfer request instead. The gives his all more than the crap we see from Walcott.

    1. Aguero £40 mils
      Suarez £70 mils
      Lewandowski FREE

      At the time of their transfers (part from Lewa), I thought “damn, that’s a looot of money). But now I’m just thinking how did they go for that cheap..

      Really missed a trick with Aguero. He even seems to be dead loyal, why on earth would he stay with them even when Real comes calling like every summer?

  6. “He is a victim of the size of the squad”?? What squad???

    Actually he was a victim of Wenger’s delusion and favouritism….
    It will only an injury crisis for him to even be on the bench…
    Wish you the best boy#rEdArMy#

    1. We have Alexis, Walcott, the Ox, Iwobi who play on the wings.
      Wilshere and Ramsey will compete for game time on the right wing too
      Adelaide is an emerging natural talent and can exceed Campbell current level.
      Welbeck and our new sigining Lucas Perez can play on the wings too
      So Campbell will never have enough games as he likes to play

      It seems you just like to criticise Wenger whatever he did.

      1. @ethangooner
        None of those players you named, Perez excluded, have either the skill set or engine of Joel…

      2. This is not just a matter of “criticizing Wenger,”

        Campbell indeed has far more promise and far more to offer than many of Wenger’s pet projects. Walcott is a Wenger project that has gone on long enough. He is not great and not as bad as some say but…..

        Without a doubt Campbell can play the wings better than many Wenger favorites. Stevie wonder could see that.

    2. I think this is a strong disagreement where we all really agree – just arguing the same thing from different angles.

      Campbell absolutely IS a victim of squad size – there are indeed many players fighting for few positions. The problem is Wenger created this squad size based on pure favoritism instead of merit.

      By pure merit ……… Campbell should be with Arsenal and some other players should be elsewhere.

  7. Joel is clearly very motivated to succeed, high work rate on the pitch and is getting experience in playing in a number of leagues. Lets hope he has a good loan spell and I hope to see him in an arsenal shirt again. Perhaps if we get a new manager next season he may see more in joel than wenger does.

  8. Our U23 team just lost 1-3 to Liverpool u23
    But Akpom scored

    With Giroud out, I hope Wenger considers Akpom for Watford or at least puts him on if nobody scores

  9. I was looking at record transfers today and something stood out to me. Bayern Munich record signing is £34m for Javi Martinez. If Mustafi deal goes through Arsenal would have bought 3 players for a higher price than Bayern Munich record signing (maybe 4, Xhaka value is not certain for me). However they spent over £20m on player over 10 times in their history. Arsenal have only done so 4 times (including Mustafi).

    They pounced at the right time and got really good players in the £20m-30m bracket. German clubs record signing are far lower than the big teams in England, Spain, Italy and France (PSG basically).

    If you look at the ‘List of most expensive association football transfers’ wikipedia page, no German club is listed there. The page shows the 50 most expensive signings.

    1. In the PL, I thought Mktharyan for £26 mil and Janssen for £19 million were quite good prices too,
      However, we will need to wait and see how they perform this season

      Nolito for £14 million seems good too. Nolito has performed well so far.
      Batshuayi was a bit expensive
      Ibrahimovic was free but makes around £300,000 per week

  10. Arsenal are set to announce the £52million signings of Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi and Deportivo La Coruna striker Lucas Perez

    The double deals will bring an end to the growing pressure on the Gunners manager ahead of Wednesday night’s transfer window deadline.

    Arsenal initially turned down the chance to sign Perez last month and Wenger had previously also been reluctant to pay over the odds to sign Mustafi, despite the club’s defensive crisis.

    The sudden change of heart had raised suspicions that Arsenal were panic buying and bowing to unrest among their disgrunteld supporters.

    But Wenger said: “Look at my face. Am I the face of somebody who does a panic buy?

    I can’t believe Wenger said that, Hahaha ? What a Billy Bull ?’ er!!

    1. If only one of those journalist had the balls to stand up and say “Yes, Arsene, You have many faces and each one of them has done a panic buy or two, in the last 12 years”

      1. Wenger is known for panic buys
        Buying on the last day surely is panic buying
        Ozil (glad he signed him though), Mertsacker, Arteta, Benayoun, Welbeck were all last day signings

  11. That list of player’s doesn’t do any justice to the Real list of panic buys lol ?

    @ DavidNZ
    Hey Buddy, any chance of one of your infamous list’s of Wenger’s panic buys? ….. pretty please! ??

    1. Lol 🙂
      Well he bought a curry last week
      after a late night at the office.
      It was so spicy his pants caught fire
      He was panicking then 🙂

  12. The Walcott situation reminds me so much of the Sterling situation. They are at different stages but still the same career progression.

    So much promise from both. As young players they spurred excitement and even frightened opposing defenders.

    But both Walcott and Sterling do not really excel at the art of football. When they storm the goal on counterattacks it almost always ends in uncertainty, hesitancy and disappointment.

    Walcott has had a few good months in 10 years. When city grabbed Sterling he had not played well in many many months – it made no sense. And during the Euros his true talent was on display. (Walcott would have been much better – and that is not good. Sterling was worse than awful – not a strong enough word for how bad he was).

    In other words, neither player will ever come close to fulfilling the hyped promise. Wenger was right to take a chance on Walcott. But the time for him to flourish is long gone even though Wenger’s dream for him still burns deep inside the Wenger brain.

    1. @luvdaguns It seems seem people don’t like you ruining there Wenger bashing session with stats/facts, that show that Joel needs to bring more to the party. 28 games is sufficient to prove yourself. Bellerin didn’t need 28 games to prove his worth

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