Hector Bellerin prefers Real Betis stay over returning to Arsenal after loan spell expires next summer
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Published 12/10/2021 at 13:51 GMT
"I’ve always said if I didn’t want to be here next season, I wouldn’t have come from the beginning." Hector Bellerin's future at Arsenal looks uncertain as he is on a season-long loan at Real Betis and will have only one year on his contract next summer. The right-back fell out of favour under Mikel Arteta.
Hector Bellerin
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Hector Bellerin has suggested that he would prefer to stay at Real Betis rather than return to Arsenal after his loan spell expires at the end of the season.
Bellerin, 26, left the Gunners on the final day of the transfer window to return to La Liga.
He will still have one year left on his deal with Arsenal next summer but hinted that he would prefer to stay at Betis, having struggled for first-team minutes under Mikel Arteta.
Asked where he thinks he will be next June, the right-back told ElDesmarque: “I don’t know, but I’ve always said if I didn’t want to be here next season, I wouldn’t have come from the beginning.
“There are many things to be decided but what I want to do is enjoy this season that I am here. And what has to happen will happen.”
Bellerin joined Arsenal in 2011 and played 25 times in the Premier League last season.
It was reported that he took a sizeable pay cut to move to Betis, who his father said he always wanted him to join.
“It is clear that money is something important, because it is our job. But I think in football that love of sport, of the club, is being lost,” he explained.
“And for me, after having understood and had that feeling since childhood, there are things that you put first. This past year and a half has made us rethink many things. For me and for everyone it was an effort to carry out the operation, not only from the point of view of money. Also how much it cost us to get here. In the end, those efforts pay off and I had other priorities when making my decision.”
Arteta said last month that he was sad to see Bellerin leave after a decade with the club.
"To find someone like Hector is not easy," he said. "He has been raised here with us and is loved by everyone at the football club.
"I had to say goodbye with sadness but at the same time, I had to understand his position. He needed a new challenge, he has needed a new challenge for a while now. After discussions for a long time, we decided to let him go because it was the right thing for him as well. He always told me about playing one day at Betis, we had talked about it."
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