Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko has released a new edition of his autobiography "Believe," adding 16 new pages to the previous version.
"I was almost never in the starting lineup last season, except for a few individual matches. For me, this was the worst season of my professional career. A player who doesn’t play is nothing. It’s one thing when your body lets you down. That can happen. But it’s much harder to accept that you’ve gone from being one of the key players on the team to a non-playing substitute. The feeling of rejection you experience when the coach no longer believes in you can break your spirit, even if you are the toughest person on the planet.
Sitting on the bench in the Premier League for a very large salary is still, of course, a privilege, a problem that billions of people on this planet would willingly exchange their much harder life for. Believe me, as a Ukrainian, I am aware of this.
I am a professional, and my job is to continue playing. At Arsenal, everyone understands their role, their duties, and responsibility. I am not one of those who comes, shows a bad face, and spreads negative energy; I still try to lighten the atmosphere with a few jokes and make people smile. I have tried my best to stay positive inside," Zinchenko is quoted by The Athletic.