{"id":1275,"date":"2026-04-09T05:32:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:32:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:32:58","slug":"willian-admits-family-implored-him-to-snub-arsenal-for-chelsea-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1275","title":{"rendered":"Willian admits family implored him to snub Arsenal for Chelsea stay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>At A Glance:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Formerly of Arsenal, Willian\u2019s spell at the club was forgetful.<\/li>\n<li>He moved from Chelsea in the summer of 2020 after seven brilliant seasons in west London.<\/li>\n<li>Recently, he claimed that family members warned him that moving to the Gunners was the wrong decision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>Former Arsenal winger Willian has opened up about his move from Chelsea to the Gunners in the summer of 2020 and claimed that even his closest family members warned him that it was the wrong move for his career.<\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian \u2013 who is now plying his trade in his homeland for Gremio \u2013 arrived at the Emirates Stadium in 2020 after a 339-match stint with Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>He became something of a cult hero at Stamford Bridge, making at least 40 appearances in each of his seven seasons in the west of the capital.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong>What Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told Cesc Fabregas before he became Como manager<\/p>\n<p>Willian\u2019s stay in north London, though, was not as memorable as the left winger lasted just one season \u2013 2020\/21 \u2013 before moving onto pastures new. In his latest revelation, he revealed that he was implored by family members not to join the Gunners.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Incredibly, Willian\u2019s family told him Arsenal move was the wrong decision<\/h2>\n<p>Willian, a two-time Premier League winner with the Blues under both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte \u2013 enjoyed plenty of success with the club. That also includes the Europa League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a week after announcing that his Stamford Bridge days were behind him, he put pen to paper on a three-year deal at their cross-London rivals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted a three-year contract and Chelsea were only offering a two-year deal, so I ended up not renewing my contract,\u201d the former winger told HBO Max.<\/p>\n<p>He then claimed that those close to him \u2013 including family members \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbomax.com\/gb\/en\/sports\/2026-3-24\/7f07a1b3-3bfe-54df-b779-5a59432b7c18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told him that moving from west to north London was a mistake<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring those negotiations, Arsenal started showing interest. Many people say I should never have left Chelsea, family members as well.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Willian after joining Arsenal in 2020:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I talked with the manager he told me why he needed me for 3 years. It was that he first wanted to qualify for the Champions League and win it by the time I left. That was what I wanted to hear.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M8yvSsCnN6\">pic.twitter.com\/M8yvSsCnN6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Footy Section (@FTBLsection) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FTBLsection\/status\/2028560980469334471?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen I got there, it was a transition period, a lot of players left the club, others came in. I played during the pandemic as well, and that didn\u2019t help. I couldn\u2019t connect to the fans; the stadiums were empty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Incredibly, the Brazil international still had two years left to run on his deal when he eventually left the Emirates but it was the right time for him to leave all parties agreed.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old moved back to Brazil and signed for boyhood club Corinthians before returning to the Premier League in the summer of 2022 to join Fulham. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Willian: \u2018I wasn\u2019t happy at Arsenal\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time Willian has described that his Arsenal spell was a flop. Previously speaking to ex-Manchester United and England defender, he claimed: \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy (at Arsenal), I wasn\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I didn\u2019t perform. I don\u2019t want to go into the details. When I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well \u2013 new club, new mates, new project,\u201d he added, per <em>The Metro<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut after three months, I said to my agent: \u2018Please, I want to go\u2019. I don\u2019t want to speak bad about the club, because it is a big club. Arsenal has a big history.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018In football, big players played there before as well. But it didn\u2019t work, it didn\u2019t work. It was, of course, the most difficult time of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Willian then claimed that he spoke to his family and <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/04\/07\/family-told-not-leave-chelsea-arsenal-listened-27873667\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agreed that a premature departure made sense for that point in his career<\/a>. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s unfair to stay in a place that you don\u2019t want to stay just because of the money. For me, it was that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At A Glance: Formerly of Arsenal, Willian\u2019s spell at the club was forgetful. He moved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}