Willian opens up on Arsenal exit after walking away from millions

Alexandre Lacazette and Willian (left-right) warming up before the UEFA Europa League match v Slavia Prague at Emirates Stadium,

Willian has opened up on his difficult spell at Arsenal, admitting that was ‘unhappy’ during his one-season stay at The Emirates.

The Brazilian signed a three-year contract, worth £220,000-a-week, with the Gunners last summer after leaving Chelsea on a free transfer. However, the attacker struggled at his new club and managed only one goal and five assists in 37 games across all competitions.

Willian did not feature in any of Arsenal’s opening three games of this season. That then led to the club mutually terminating his contract by mutual consent on August 30, with the player walking away from around £20million pounds in the process.

This allowed Willian to re-join Corinthians, the Brazilian club where he started his career.

With that switch now officially confirmed, Willian spoke about his troubles in north London.

“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.

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“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.’

The move ended Willian eight-year stay in England, where he won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and the 2018-19 Europa League while at Chelsea.


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Allardyce tipped for Arsenal job

Meanwhile, former England boss Sam Allardyce would take no time in improving Arsenal, according to pundit Tony Cascarino.

The pressure is on Gunners boss Mikel Arteta after a nightmare start to the Premier League season.

An opening-day defeat to Brentford set Arsenal off on the wrong foot. And losses to Man City and Chelsea have followed. Arteta’s men sit bottom of the table and have yet to score a goal.

Sam Allardyce venting anger

Arteta is under fire at The Emirates and the poor start even prompted Edu to publicly defend the club’s transfer policy.

Arsenal’s technical director said he was “hurt” by Arsenal’s situation. But has asked fans to judge them when all their missing players return.

But Cascarino seemingly has no time for Arteta. He even suggested that Allardyce, who was in charge last season when West Brom were relegated, would be a better man for the job that the Spaniard.

“If you look at what he did to West Brom – I know they went down – but he certainly made them far better defensively,” Cascarino told talkSPORT.

“He’d make Arsenal way better.

“I know some Arsenal fans don’t care about that. They want their teams to have flair. But I think Sam would undoubtedly do a better job than Arteta is doing at the moment.”

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