London: French defender Gael Clichy has reportedly turned down a lucrative new contract with Arsenal to join Manchester City because he was fed up with the Gunners failure to win trophies.
The 25-year-old claimed that after only a week with his new team-mates on City’s pre-season tour in the United States and Canada, he already feels he has made a winning choice.
“After spending eight years with Arsenal it would have been easy to sign a new contract to stay there, because they’re a fantastic club that will always be challenging for trophies,” a daily quoted Clichy, as saying.
“But, it got to a point for me where I didn’t just want to challenge for the titles only to be disappointed in the final weeks of the season. I wanted to play for a club that would win them,” he added.
Arsenal was at one stage in the hunt for four trophies, but won nothing.
Clichy, who signed a four-year contract with City, insisted that he was not being critical of fellow Frenchman Wenger or Arsenal.
But the failure of Wenger’s team to convert title challenges into silverware had persuaded him to move, he said.
ANI
First Published: Sunday, July 17, 2011, 11:27