Fulham star Willian opens up on Arsenal exit
|Fulham attacking midfielder Willian has revealed that he left Arsenal in 2021 after just a year at the club because both parties could not detect why things did not work out.
The Brazilian forward left Chelsea after seven seasons for the Gunners in the summer of 2020, agreeing to a three-year contract with them as they had offered him greater security with 12 months more than the Blues did.
However, Willian ended the 2020-21 season with a goal and seven assists in 37 appearances, and he has revealed why he asked Arsenal to terminate his contract.
“When I left Arsenal everyone knows it was not good. It was a difficult year for me,” the Fulham star told the Telegraph.
“I decided to leave and, at that time, I still had two more years contract and I just said to them ‘listen, let’s break the contract. It has not worked the way we wanted. I will go somewhere else and I will continue to play football’. I turned the situation around and, now, three years later I am at this club, enjoying myself. It’s an amazing club, to be honest.”
“People were saying to me ‘you are crazy, you cannot give up this kind of money’. They were saying ‘any other player in your position would never do that. They would sit on the contract and collect the money’. Stuff like that.
“But I don’t think about money. I know money is important, for sure. But it’s not the first thing in my life. For me, God first. Then my family, then football. Then the other things. But I wasn’t happy so that’s why I decided to leave.”
Willian did what most players will never think of doing, demanding for his contract to be terminated when he had the choice to keep picking up his hefty £220,000-per-week wages.
As much as £20 million was wiped off the wage bill of Arsenal as he did not seek any compensation from them upon his exit.
Willian ended up protecting his integrity by avoiding potentially long and disruptive negotiations over a payoff.
As the case was when Mesut Ozil moved to Fenerbahce, Arsenal may have had to continue paying a portion of the wages of Brazilian to force through a sale if his contract was not terminated, and the club should be grateful for the 35-year-old.
He returned to the Premier League last term and has been in fine form for Fulham, with nine league goals and seven assists to his name so far.