After three months, I wanted to depart Arsenal - Willian

Willian

has revealed that he planned to depart

after three months as he “wasn’t happy” there.

Arsenal penned a three-year contract with the Brazilian on a free transfer after he left

in 2020.

However, he asked the Gunners to cut that deal short in August before going back to his boyhood club Corinthians, having had a hard time reaching his best level when playing for Arsenal.

Willian has now been talking about his leave, telling Rio Ferdinand's

YouTube

channel 

FIVE

:<em>

"I was not happy, that’s why I didn’t perform. I don’t want to go into the details, but I wasn’t happy.

"So, when I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well, new club, new mates, new projects.

"After three months, I told my agent 'please, I want to go'. I don’t want to speak bad about the club because it is a big club, has a big history in football, big players played there before it’s a big club - but it didn’t work, it was of course the most difficult time of my career."

Arsenal agreed to terminate the 33-year-old’s contract when he agreed to forgo two years of wage but he was determined to do it and get his passion back.

"

Yeah, it was big money that I gave up – money is not the most important thing in life, you need to be happy, to be getting pleasure and wake up and want to go to training,"

he said.

"I wasn’t having that, so I said to myself, with my family and my wife ‘I cannot stay here, I am not happy here, I have to leave and find a way out to leave the club.' For me, it is unfair to stay in a place you don’t want to stay just because of the money."

During his seven-year spell with Chelsea, Willian established himself as one of the greatest midfielders in the

, contributing to two league title victories.

However, he struggled to show his potential at Arsenal and he found the back of the net only once in 37 games in 2020-21.

The club fans let Willian know that he wasn’t living up to expectations and their comments made him realize what he wants.

"

I received a lot of messages on social media from them and also because I came from Chelsea,"

he said.

"I think if I came from another club, it would have been better for them but also because I came from Chelsea and didn’t perform well - I think about that and say ‘I have to go.’”

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