Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck has confessed that he found the decision to join the club an easy one thanks to their English core, the Metro reports.
The England international was sold by Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal on transfer deadline day in the summer of 2014, and joined Arsenal for a fee of £18million (via Metro).
United fans were largely unhappy about van Gaal’s decision to let him go to one of their title rivals, especially considering that he was a product of their youth academy (via Metro), and the decision looked to be a bad one when he got off to a bright start at The Emirates Stadium.
But despite a roller coaster 12 months, Welbeck claims that the club’s English core of Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Calum Chambers, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere have all made it easier for him to fit into life in London (via Metro).
“It was a new challenge but it was an exciting time for me to approach a new situation, to move from Manchester to London and all of the stuff that goes with it,” Welbeck told Arsenal’s official website.
“Knowing the England boys from international duty and growing up with them in the youth teams made it easy. They integrate you into the group a lot easier with the other lads as well.
“It was a whole new city, not completely new as I’d been to London before but it was weird knowing that I was going to be calling London ‘home’ and not Manchester.
“The thing that you miss the most is your family and that’s the most important thing. A lot of my family and friends do come to London to see me anyway. They come to all the home games so I get to see them quite a lot anyway.
“But I was leaving something that I knew after growing up in Manchester, coming to a new city, it’s an exciting period.”
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