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Former Arsenal star who left them to join Barcelona writes an emotional letter in the Mail, talking about his experiences with the London club.
Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars were the first Arsenal players to break the Gunners hearts and joined Barcelona back in 2000 when they were in the prime of their career and till date the Spanish club managed to lure many such stars to the Camp Nou including the beloved Henry and Fabregas.
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Emmanuel Petit, the pony tailed defensive midfielder who arrived from French club Monaco formed a rigid partnership with fellow French man Patrick Viera at the heart of Arsenal’s midfield. However, Petit refused to stay at the Highbury and wanted a new challenge joining Barcelona in the summer of 2000 for a fee of €14m. The Former Arsenal star wrote in the DailyMail that he regrets leaving the club for the Barca.
“After three seasons at Arsenal I joined Barcelona, but if I had the power to change the past, I would come back and change the day I said ‘yes’ to the move. It was bad timing for me to leave Arsenal.
“When I first went to Barcelona I realised that football is a passion, but it was more about politics. So after six months I wanted to leave the club. I hated my time over there. Honestly I hated it. I was counting the days – day after day – until I could leave.”
Following his operation, Petit’s career came to an abrupt end as he found it difficult to maintain his fitness. Having released from Chelsea Petit spent almost 6 months at Arsenal’s training ground trying to find a new club, but ultimately was not successful and decided to retire at the start of 2005.
“Arsenal were there to help me get back on track. I tried and tried, weeks and weeks with Arsenal and Arsene. The club were so kind to open the door to their training facilities for me. Arsene came to me and said if you can reach a certain level physically then I will sign a contract with you. I tried my best to come back but the pain was so bad.”
Here is a compilation of Emmanuel Petit at Arsenal:
