Jose Antonio Reyes, “I keep good memories of my spell with Arsenal, which is a club I’ll always respect”
Having failed to make an impact with Arsenal after joining from Sevilla, Jose Antonio Reyes revealed to the News of the World how he has good memories of his experience with the North London Club and the only reason he left was that he was homesick.
The 26-year old, who joined Real Madrid after leaving Arsenal and now plays for Atletico Madrid, said:
Obviously something special is in the air every time I’m back and playing away to an English team.
Chelsea was a special game because they used to be my rivals when I was an Arsenal player.
The home fans gave me a noisy reception, which is something you have to accept as it’s part of the game. Once you wear the Arsenal shirt, you become Chelsea’s enemy. Playing in England was a massive experience for me. Even if people don’t think I made it here, I grew up as a human being and learnt a lot.
Anyway, I keep good memories of my spell with Arsenal, which is a club I’ll always respect. Playing in this country was an opportunity. But I was homesick and decided to move back to Spain.
I have one memory that sticks out when i think of Reyes. That was after the away game to crystal which we drew. He was on the coach waiting for the last Arsenal players to get on and this guy had his little boy with him and waved to Reyes and showed him his sons shirt which had Reyes on the back and gave him the thumps up. Seein that Reyes made his way to the front and off the coach took out his match shirt signed it and gave it to the boy.
nice!
he was always the one that got away. a prodigious talent that somehow just never realised his potential with us. he could have been HUGE for us if he’d wanted to stay and fight
the thought of a refined and experienced reyes still playing that partnership with rvp is terrible that we’ve lost it. they were always two amazing kids, but after a handful of years playing together by now they could have been an unstoppable partnership
MY MEMORIES OF JOSE REYES ARE SO MANY. HE BROUGHT SO MUCH JOY AND WATCHING HIM PLAY WAS MAGIC – HE WASN’T A FAILURE, EVEN THOUGH SOMETIMES HE HAD HIS DAYS WHERE HE DIDN’T SHINE.
NOW HE’S PLAYING EVEN BETTER AND HE’S STRONGER IN PHYSIQUE AND CHARACTER AND COULD BE ON THE CUSP OF FULFILLING HIS POTENTIAL, EVEN NOW HE’S WITH ATHLETIC OF MADRID, I’LL STILL FOLLOW HIM.
A NEW CHAPTER IS BEGINNING…