Cesc Fabregas explains that he left the Gunners to join Barcelona back in 2011 for a couple of reasons, from his relationship with some of his former teammates, to the pressure on winning trophies.
Arsenal signed Fabregas from Barca when he was 15-year-old in 2003 and since then he made 303 appearances across all competitions for the Gunners before returning to Nou Camp, where he then moved to Chelsea, and now he plays for Monaco in France.
In a recent interview for Arseblog, the 32-year-old Spaniard opened up about his decision to leave Arsenal nine years ago. He said that there were a number of different reasons and admitted that he felt only Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri were the players "on his level" and that he had many "sleepless nights".
In the interview with Arseblog Fabregas said: "I was the captain, I always felt so much pressure on myself.
"I had to lead this team to win something. I gave everything. Sometimes, I used to go home after we lost and I used to cry.
"I used to suffer, I used to spend sleepless nights suffering. And then you lose a game, you're in the bus like this, destroyed, and then you hear some players laughing, thinking about where they will be going out later.
"This was going on for a few years. We were playing beautiful football and I enjoyed that side of things but I was putting pressure on myself to lead, to do everything and at one point I felt kind of lonely.
"Especially in the last two or three years, I felt Robin and Samir were the only players that were at my level mentally and technically.
"Many things came in my head, I have to admit I was a bit empty, I was drained mentally, physically, in my soul knowing I'm giving everything, knowing a few signings the club could have made but didn't happen.
"Seeing some behaviours from certain players or something like this made me feel I wanted to check something else. If it was not because of that, I would not have left Arsenal at that time."
