Santi Cazorla recently spoke about his time at Arsenal. He claimed that Arsene Wenger made him feel better when he was concerned about his injury from 2016 to 2018. Cazorla is an excellent midfield player, and many fans enjoyed watching him play.
Santi Cazorla on his Arsenal career and Arsene Wenger
Santi Cazorla had surgery many times for a bad injury in his Achilles tendon. In November 2017, doctors said he should be happy just to walk again after he got an infection in his right ankle. He had to get skin from his arm and put it on his leg because of the infection. He couldn’t play for a long time from October 2016 to June 2018, missing more than 100 games for Arsenal. He won two FA Cup medals with Arsenal, scoring in the final against Hull in 2014. He said Arsene Wenger offered him a new contract just before he had a big surgery in Sweden.
“Before I met him [Arsene Wenger], he impressed me a lot. In the end, he was a coach who had been at Arsenal for almost 20 years. I think both Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson are going to be the only coaches who will be at a club for so long. But when you have a figure that represents so much for a club, for the fans, for everybody inside Arsenal in this case, you have a lot of respect at first. And yet Arsène is very close,” Cazorla said to DAZN.
“And just with the injury, I had doubts about whether the club wanted to renew me or not. But one day before travelling to have surgery in Sweden, Arsene called me into his office, without me knowing anything and told me: ‘Sign the contract for one more year. Go calmly to your operation, with a clear head, knowing you have one more year at Arsenal’ This is a detail of how he is as a person and one that I will always be grateful to him for. And I will remember him with a lot of love,” he added.
Santi Cazorla:
"With the injury, I had doubts about whether the club wanted to renew me or not.
But one day before travelling to have surgery in Sweden, Arsene called me into his office, and told me: 'Sign the contract for 1 more year'." [DAZN via Sport Witness] pic.twitter.com/N1H6tYm7X7
— AfcVIP⁴⁹ (@VipArsenal) March 7, 2024
In August 2018, he finally moved from Arsenal to Villarreal on a free transfer.
