'Sold me a dream': Ex-Arsenal winger on why he asked to leave

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Willian has revealed he told his agent he wanted to leave Arsenal just three months after arriving, claiming Mikel Arteta was missing the "human part" of management during his single season in north London.

The Brazilian joined the Gunners on a free transfer in 2020 after leaving Chelsea, signing a three-year deal believed to be worth well over £200,000-a-week. He scored once in 37 appearances before the contract was terminated by mutual consent a year later.

Speaking on The Obi One Podcast, Willian explained what he was told before making the move across London. "Arteta said to me: 'We're going to play like this and I want you to be the main guy, I will build the team around you, I want to give you the key to the club,'" he said.

"When I heard that, obviously I love Chelsea but I was in the last year of my contract, I was 32, and I was thinking three more years in London, stay with my family in London, they love London. And then I decided."

'It wasn't a good dream'

Willian insists there is no personal animosity towards the Arsenal manager, but was critical of how the squad was handled at the time.

"I have nothing against him," he said. "He's a great coach inside the pitch, his ideas are great but he missed little bits on how to manage the team. The human part, he was missing it. It's important, but inside the pitch he is good. I always joke they sold me a dream and it wasn't a good dream."

The winger said he had made his mind up by November of that season, adding that he "saw the mentality was different" to what he had known at Chelsea and that "nobody was pushing" the younger players attempting to break into the first team.

"I got frustrated," Willian said. "I am not saying it is their fault, but when you heard a lot of things and then you join the club, things that are not the same as what they told me, I got frustrated straight away. Three months later I said to my agent I want to leave, and that I made a big mistake leaving Chelsea."

Context of a difficult season

Willian arrived at the Emirates on the back of a strong final campaign at Stamford Bridge, where he made 47 appearances and scored 11 goals in all competitions. He opened his Arsenal account with three assists on his debut against Fulham, but the form never followed.

His one season coincided with Arsenal's eighth-place finish and a campaign without European football the year after. He left in the summer of 2021 to return to Brazil with Corinthians, walking away from what he described as the "best contract of my life".

"It didn't work and because of that I couldn't play well or perform because I wasn't happy," he said. "When you are not happy you cannot perform. Money cannot buy happiness."

The comments, carried by the Evening Standard, arrive with Arteta now five years further into a rebuild that has reshaped the squad almost entirely since that 2020-21 season, with a far younger profile of player at the heart of it.