Willian has revealed that Arsenal showed him that they wanted him more, and that is why he moved to the Emirates instead of extending his stay at Chelsea.
The Brazilian had spent seven years with the Blues and he wanted to extend his contract with them and become a club legend. The club has a policy of awarding just a one-year deal to players who are above the age of 30, but they were prepared to offer a two-year deal to Willian.
The Brazilian was, however, insistent on getting a three-year deal. His fine form during the Premier League restart may have earned him the right to ask for such a deal. However, Chelsea was adamant that they will not offer him more than two years.
Meanwhile, Arsenal was more than happy to meet his contract demands and the Gunners kept in touch with his agent constantly. He claimed that while Chelsea seemed to have offered him an ultimatum, Arsenal kept calling to try and sign him.
“They knew how much I wanted to stay. I wanted to be a legend for the club. It was strange,” he told the Daily Mail.
“But Arsenal was different. Every day they called my agent and wanted to meet or talk. They really wanted me to go there.
“That’s the difference. I see one club that made a lot of effort for me to go there, pushing a lot. And another who just said: ‘Two years or go’.
“I was a little bit sad with that but I respected Chelsea’s policy. Now it’s a new club, a new challenge, a new experience, a new life. Now it’s time to work to try to win more titles.”
Willian got a flying start to his career at the Emirates, but his form has trailed off a bit since then, and Arteta has called for patience from the Arsenal fans. The Brazilian still has a lot of time to repay Arsenal’s faith in him and hopefully he will be much improved tonight against Aston Villa.
They got Ziyech, we got a 32 year old willian who turns up about 1 in 5 games. Think they might have made the right decision there!