Denilson reveals he struggled at Arsenal

Much was expected of Denilson Pereira Neves, simply known as Denilson, when he arrived at Arsenal.

The then-young Brazilian was incredibly inexperienced at club football level when he did make the £3.5 million move from Sao Paulo however manager at the time, Arsene Wenger would describe him as “a little bit in between Tomáš Rosický and Gilberto”, thus upping the pressure on the South American. Many would have been placing bets with sportsbooks available at apuestas24.mx when he first arrived in the country.

Denilson would go on to play for the Gunners for a total of five seasons in the centre of midfield before he ultimately left to return to his boyhood team in 2011 on a two-year loan before completing a permanent transfer in 2013.

Now 32-years-old, the current Sliema Wanderers player (who play in Malta), has recently revealed that he did not enjoy his time in London and revealed it felt more like a prison than a home.

Speaking with FourFourTwo magazine, he recalled how going home from training was fine, but it was after a game where he struggled the most.

“Going home after training was fine, but after a game, I’d just played in front of 60,000 fans cheering for me. I’d have a shower at the stadium and go home, but once I got there I found myself alone,” Denilson said.

Although he had Gilberto Silva in the squad to potentially help him, he admitted that the loneliness that he felt during his time was something that he could not get to grips with and something that had an impact on him moving forward.

He added: “I’d log on to MSN Messenger hoping to speak to someone, to see if anyone had watched my game, but there was no one online.

“That sort of thing started to affect me, as you think to yourself, ‘The match is over, I want to talk to someone, but there’s no one around’. People only see us as professionals, but they forget we’re also human beings.”

“Some days, I was feeling all right and wanted to go for a walk in the afternoon. But then you see the weather – it was depressing and you give up. I thought, ‘Dear God, is this my life?’ You don’t have anyone to talk to, no one online to chat to and discuss stuff other than football.”

Gilberto Silva offered to help him through the transition, but Denilson revealed he turned down the offers because of the way he was feeling: “I struggled a lot with that but didn’t mention it to anyone. I kept it all to myself. I never told Gilberto Silva, for example. He often invited me to his house, but I never felt comfortable. I thought, ‘He has his own life, his wife and his kids. I don’t want to keep bothering him’. One Christmas, he invited me and I didn’t go. I stayed locked up at home, alone, as I didn’t want to inconvenience him.”

It’s a truly sad story, and one can only feel it played a part in how his career at Arsenal and the clubs that have followed has turned out.