Alexander Zinchenko: “City” wanted to sell me to “Wolverhampton” or “Betis”. It would have been like going back to “Ufa” again”

Ukrainian Arsenal player Alexander Zinchenko shared in his autobiography “Believe” how he could have transferred to “Betis” and rejected “Wolverhampton”.

“When I returned from PSV, City had just bought Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy, and Danilo. Then in January, Aymeric Laporte arrived. There were already three full-backs and a central midfielder who could also play in that position. Nonetheless, I wanted to stay there because the level was very high. I thought this was the place where I could challenge myself, improve, and learn for at least a year.

The club had other ideas. They were very eager to sell me and started negotiations with “Betis” and “Wolverhampton.” But that would have been like going back to “Ufa” again. “City” wanted to sell me to the “Wolves”. I remember being in the dining hall at the training ground, and there was a Sky reporter who said: “Wolverhampton is waiting for Zinchenko today.” I was having lunch with the guys, and everyone laughed, saying: “Alex, don’t do it.” Are you going to “Wolverhampton”?

But if I were to move, I wanted it to be to “Betis” because they wanted me to play in midfield. My agents were in Seville, and the move was more or less done. But it didn’t happen because “City” preferred the offer from the “Wolves”.

You see it, feel it, read the situation because any transfers are a game. In every conversation in the office, they try to persuade. They will try to do what they want, not what you want. In the end, if everyone is satisfied, the deal is done. But not in my case. I was so interested in “Betis” that I didn’t think about the “Wolves”. I pushed them to let me go to “Betis” because in my mind I was already one foot in Spain.

I remember this conversation with Begiristain, the director of football. When I asked him: “Boss, how are things?”, he always told me: “We are literally there. Give me 48 hours, give me 24 hours.” But in the end, the transfer window was closed in Europe, but still open in the UK for a few hours. It seems to me they were trying to drag it out. “Listen, there are no other options, you have to move to the ‘Wolves’. They thought: “If the move to ‘Betis’ doesn’t happen, he will definitely join the ‘Wolves’ because he isn’t going to sit at ‘City’ not playing.”

I have nothing against the ‘Wolves’, but I didn’t really want to join them just like that. By choosing ‘Betis’, I was choosing the style of football I want to play and the team I want to join. But in the end, the Spanish deadline passed, they didn’t sign me, but I also didn’t go to the ‘Wolves’, - said Zinchenko.