Clichy keen to stay for life
by Laurent Picard, 02 May 2008
Gael Clichy would love to play his entire career in an Arsenal shirt and has told setantasports.com that he wishes never to play in France's Ligue 1.
The defender is also happy to play entertaining football but understands how winning is important and he has apologised to the fans for the lack of silverware this season.
The left back was educated at Cannes, a club which is famous for its Academy, but moved to Arsenal at a very young age and never played professional football on home soil.
Clichy learnt his trade with the youth teams, then became Ashley Cole’s cover, and finally brilliantly replaced him when he moved to Chelsea.
When asked if he would like to play in the French league before his career is over, the PFA's top left back this term committed himself to Arsene Wenger’s club.
“We never know what football has got for you but I hope I will not because that would mean I stay here with Arsenal,” Clichy told setantasports.com.
“And I feel that Arsenal are one of the best clubs in Europe so I really hope I will stay there.
“So sorry for Ligue 1 but I’m good here.”
Clichy enjoys playing in one of the most spectacular footballing sides in Europe but the tough competitor feels sorry not to have won a trophy for Arsenal’s supporters this year.
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“The first thing is that, in football, you have to entertain people and they want to see good football but of course you cannot be proud of just playing well without winning any trophy,” he told setantasports.com.
“But you have to keep that in mind because that’s amazing to play every home game in front of 60,000 supporters and you have to give credit to the fans.
“To be honest I feel really sorry for the fans. I know that next season we’ll be better and we’ve got to win things.
“That was the time to win something this year because we had a really good season so I really feel bad for them because we let them a little bit down.
“Of course you cannot say that you want to play good football for 10 years without winning anything.
“But I’m sure that if we stick with the game we play and the quality we have, we can do both: entertain people, have pleasure and win trophies.”