Clichy Explains Why He left for Manchester City

After spending eight years as a Gunner, Gael Clichy had never envisioned leaving north London – but in 2011 that’s exactly what happened.

Speaking exclusively to our In Lockdown podcast, our former defender opened up about the reasons behind his move to Manchester City.

“I remember clearly at that time the club was trying to promote more British players,” Clichy said.
 
“There was a group of four or five players, they were putting them out there, they wanted to build the team around them and I was getting to a point where, not the injuries, but where you feel that the club is saying they [don’t] want to keep you.
 
“I don’t think they wanted me to leave but I didn’t feel at the time that they wanted me to stay. I believe nowadays in football when you want a player to stay, you tell them you want them to stay and you make sure he stays.
 
“I didn’t feel that at the time. I’m not the only one, if you look around at the other players who left at the time that I left they would probably tell you the same and I think overall the decision was good for everybody. It wasn’t linked to my injury, it wasn’t linked to anything but I could feel that the club was pushing towards something else.
 
“If you speak with my close friends, my family, there was a moment where I was dying to finish my career at Arsenal because I was loving every single moment of it. But at the same time seeing how it was going, seeing that for those last few years where we hadn’t won anything, it was down to me as the player and I thought that maybe it was time to break the circle.
 
“They were trying to promote new players so I said to myself, ‘You know what? Let’s go and see something else.'”