Source: Daily_Mail
Wenger made me a star - I should never have left Arsenal, admits Hleb
Alexander Hleb has hailed Arsene Wenger as the architect of his career and admits he was wrong to leave Arsenal for Barcelona last summer.
The Belarus winger jumped at the chance to leave north London for his boyhood idols, but the £15m dream move turned into a nightmare as he watched much of Barca's treble-winning season from the bench.
'Barca were my dream club as a kid, but I couldn't continue with them if the chance to play was not coming,' said Hleb, who has joined former club Stuttgart on a season-long loan.
Teacher: Hleb (left) takes instruction from Arsene Wenger
'I'm 28 and who knows how much time I've left in the game. I needed to move on, and the chance to go back to a place that I
feel happy in was the best solution.
'Of course I regret leaving Arsenal,' he said in the interview with ESPN.
'I was playing every week for one of the most exciting sides in Europe, a team that was always in the top four in the Premier
League and were Champions League contenders.
'I was being guided by one of the best coaches in the world in Arsene Wenger. I owe him a great deal.
'I developed a better all-round game under him and I became more robust physically, learned to look up more and play better passes and generally improved greatly as a team player. No player ever gets worse under Wenger.'
