During an interview with France Football, SC Bastia defender Sébastien Squillaci notably looked back on his time at Arsenal.
You stayed at Arsenal for three years. You played 28 times in your first season, but in your second and third seasons you played just three times. How did you deal with this situation?
It was difficult to swallow, especially because I played everywhere else before. But I was over 30. We were thinking about everything in this case: football, family, the contract… And I was at Arsenal, a very big club. I remain privileged. You have to be conscious of that. So, I trained even harder to try to stay physically in shape.
I also know on daily basis to gage how fortunate I have been to do this job. I started my professional career at AC Ajaccio, in Ligue 2, and I remember that we often changed training ground because the club did not have one and that we had to clean our kit at home.
I have had a lot of experiences in my career that help me to relativise. The most important thing is to be on the pitch, to play. At Bastia, I have found joy again with an infatuation and a fervour that seduced me immediately. We have 11 or 12 thousand fans on average and one inhabitant out of five in “Grand Bastia” has a season ticket. I have found the passion again which has filled the void of my last two seasons at Arsenal…
… My final season at Arsenal was particularly difficult. I could have sent myself out on loan in order to play more, but we had just had a little girl. We would have had to move everything whilst knowing that we would move again anyway the following season.
