Arsenal flop who was one of Mikel Arteta's first signings admits he massively regrets joining club

One of Mikel Arteta's first ever signings as Arsenal boss admitted he regrets signing for the north London club.

“Yeah, I wish I’d never left," he admitted. “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."

The following season, Willian signed for Corinthians, where he tried to rediscover his form away from England.

He has since returned to London and established himself as a regular at Fulham, producing five goals and five assists in the top-flight last term.

“They [Arsenal] are flying now. I don’t know, I think I came while it was changing a lot. I was excited when I signed with them, I was training hard but it just didn’t work.”

“I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy," he explained. "That’s why I didn’t perform. I don’t want to go into the details.

“When I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well - new club, new mates, new project.

“But after three months, I said to my agent: ‘Please, I want to go’. I don’t want to speak bad about the club, because it is a big club. Arsenal has a big history.

“In football, big players played there before as well. But it didn’t work, it didn’t work. It was, of course, the most difficult time of my career.

“It was big money that I gave up. But sometimes money is not the most important thing in life. I think you need to be happy, get pleasure every day waking up in the morning to go to train. I wasn’t having that.

“So I said to myself, with my family, I cannot stay here, I am not happy here. I have to leave, find a way out, leave the club, because if I stay I am going to stay the same. For me, it’s unfair to stay in a place that you don’t want to stay just because of the money. For me, it was that.”