French midfielder Robert Pires has finally ended speculation about his future by announcing that he has signed a two year deal with Spanish side Villareal. After six years at Arsenal, Pires has found that the club were unwilling to increase their 12 month contract offer and will move on now to the club Arsenal put out of the European Cup at the semi final stage this season.

Pires said today:

“After six wonderful years at Arsenal, full of fantastic moments, I have decided to accept a new challenge at Villarreal for the next two years of my career. I am very grateful to Arsene Wenger, the players and all the fans for their amazing support over the years.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had already prepared himself for the classy midfielder’s departure by snapping up Czech Republic star Tomas Rosicky from Borussia Dortmund this week but admits that it will be a huge wrench to see Pires leaves:

Wenger said: “Robert has had six tremendous years with us and made a huge contribution to the team’s success during his time here.

“He is not only a great footballer but a good man, so of course, we are sad to see him go. It is difficult to pick out one or two highlights - but he was superb in our double winning season during the 2001/02 campaign and contributed so hugely to our unbeaten season with 19 goals.

“I would like to thank Robert for the dedication, determination and passion he has shown and wish him well in his career.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Arsenal. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.