Former Arsenal man Willian admits he regrets leaving Chelsea for the Gunners in 2020.
The Brazilian moved across London to the Emirates after spending several successful seasons at Chelsea, but the move turned out to be the wrong decision.
Arsenal fans expected much from him and turned on the winger when their team performed terribly, which affected him all the more.
Willian eventually asked to leave and walked away from a huge salary at the club, but he does not wish he stayed.
Now at Fulham, the Brazilian admits leaving Chelsea for the Gunners probably should never have happened.
He tells Sky Sports:
“Yeah. I wish I’d never left. Yeah.
“Of course, it’s easy to say something now, but when I stop to think about the whole situation then yeah, I say to myself I wish I’d never left.
“But it’s life. I’m happy now at Fulham – enjoying myself there, so this is life.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Willian is proving his worth back in England this season, which shows he probably joined us at the wrong time.
Mikel Arteta was looking to build the squad and brought him in. If he had moved to the club now, he may have done better because he would have met a more quality group at the Emirates.
However, he is enjoying life at Fulham, which is a great thing, considering how much he struggled at the Emirates.
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HE regrets it? You can bet WE all do ! What a waste of a shirt and his wages. Plainly from the way he never played as he once did at Chelsea and is also now doing at Fulham , he ought never to have come.
God alone knows why we wanted him. What a total waste !
At the time ,I said it was a clever signing and a very good stopgap (same as Jorginho now ).
But boy he was awful,looked a completely different player from the year before ,just looked out of shape for the season ,at least the club and himself realised that it wasn’t working and he left on good terms and I would imagine a good pay off .
He’s doing well This season though ,let’s hope he doesn’t score a worldie against us tomorrow.
What a yawn fest File under poor judgement by Edu and co.
Had he been assigned on the left wing or in a central attacking midfield position at Arsenal, he could’ve been successful
Look at his current role at Fulham and his consistency, as compared to his performance for us
He’d lost his pace at that time, due to his age, so forcing him to race against the opposition’s RB on our right wing was a bad decision
Arsenal shouldn’t repeat the same mistake with Trossard and Nelson. They’re very good in tight spaces, similar to Willian, but they’re not pacey enough to race through our right wing and will have very limited options there
Wow are you sure Nelson is not pacy enough?
No, if we compare him with Mudryk, Traore and the prime Walcott
Back to your usual winding up comments. If you did watch our matches when Willian was here, you would have known that he played most of his games on the left wing, and few from the CAM position. Keep making plenty excuses for him
He was mostly assigned on the right wing at the beginning in 3-4-3 formation, then in the false nine position of the same formation
I bet that wrong assignment ruined his confidence. By the time he got some rare chances to play on the left side and in the CAM position, he had already looked lost
gai, No he would not have beeen successful in any position , as it was plain that his heart was never in our club at all.
I agree with Joe. S above, that we should file it under poor judgement, on BOTH sides.
And we have moved on. BOY, HOW we have moved on!!
BTW, I do not agree with you on Nelson AND Trossard.
Let’s see when Nelson or Trossard becomes a starter on our right wing in the future
So do we buddy… so do we
I think Willian needs to play with similar players around him. Which they’re none around him when he moved to Arsenal. Too much of individual players and Willian quickly drowned with it. With the cold presence of Aubameyang and the hot presence of Lacazette, it’s always a battlefield for any players to stomp their authority in the team. Current stars like Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah and ESR were too young and inexperienced. Probably Arteta bought him for his technical gifts which he probably contributed and his experience which he probably didn’t. Not much drama like other players and he left with good terms. No reason to be bitter at all.
Blah blah blah
So now you’re blaming the players at the club when Willian was here. So whoever doesn’t have Saka, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus and Ødegaard will not play well in an Arsenal shirt. Clearly you didn’t even watch Willian play for us, else you wouldn’t be uttering these words
Waste of time and money hope we learn from these free transfers forget about him and move on,
Have a awful feeling that little scum bag will score against us today…
A player with outstanding character, I admire you son, you may have gone over the hill but respect you as a good person.
William, maybe was the wrong fit at the time but whatever it was he realized and move on and even to this day refuse to bad mouth his former employees.
Having struck a mouthwatering deal with us, and things didn’t go as planned he could have sit back and allow his contract to run down without losing a sweat as some before him, but he did the honourable thing and walk away.
Wish they were more people like you son, I want to wish you well in your future endeavors.
While I think we should have sued him for his atrocious performances for us, I don’t know how true it is that he walked away from the money. There were reports that he was given a pay off of £15m. And considering how we paid many other players off at that period, and Willian being a Brazilian, I doubt if he actually walked away from all that money. That said, I agree he’s not a divisive player and has done well since then. It just didn’t work out for us
Gunsmoke, the realson for my FUNDAMENTAL opposite view to yours is that I never once saw Willian show any real desire to physically WORK HARD, as in flat out, at all,during all his time here.
And all my long life I have loathed lazy players and ,lazy people in all walks of life They waste any talents they may have by NOT trying their utmost, ALL the time.
More fool Willian. Frank Lampard offered him a 2 year contract, but Willian wanted a 3 year contract. Chelsea had a policy of 2 year contracts to players 30 years of age and over, with a possible 1 year extension after the 2 years. Willian refused it. When he came to Arsenal, his heart wasn’t in it. One only had to watch his body language on the pitch to see that. It was quite pathetic. I doubt it if anyone wheeling a horse whip behind him would have motivated him. I thought it was a good signing at the time. It was probably one of our worst signings. You win some and you lose some
Willian reportedly regretted of leaving Chelsea to join Arsenal according to him, when his game for Arsenal was so bad. But he never have said he regretted getting the huge amount of money he got when he was at Arsenal makes one to wonder if he has spoken the truth.
Anyway, let us Gooners and the Gunners alike disregard Willian’s claims. So as to not let him constitute a distraction to us in our very important Epl match to Fulham today.
But rather, let us focus totally on the match. Keeping in our minds that Arsenal just have to beat Fulham in the match to regain the 3 points back which they inadvertently lost to Man City who beat Crystal Place yesterday to close the gap on Arsenal to 2 points who are sitting at the top of the League table.
In Arsenal quest to regain the 3 points back so as to re extend their 5 points lead on Man City after they’ve played against Fulham today. Let me beseech Arteta to make the very correct Gunners starting XI team and 9 man bench for the. So that Arsenal will not fail to win the match but win it.
I suggest to him in my armchair coaching to start Martinelli centrally as striker for the match. And redeploy Saka to the leftwing to start the match. And at the same time start Fabio Vieira at rightwing for the match. While in the same vain, start ESR as central attacking midfielder behind Martinelli for the match.
All these starting suggestions I’ve made if some of the regular Arsenal Epl match starters won’t be available to start the match because of the reported injuries that they are having. But if such is not prevailing in the Arsenal team as being reported. Then of course Arteta can and should start his regular Epl starting Gunners for Fulham.
I won’t criticise an ex-player on a day when he could have the game of his life and bite us in the ars….oh fcuk it…he was shite.