Former Chelsea star Loic Remy has revealed that he could have tried harder to sign for Arsenal before joining the Blues. The Frenchman was once one of the Premier League’s most in-demand forwards.
Remy took the Premier League by storm when he scored six goals in 13 appearances for Queens Park Rangers in 2012-13. However, he was unable to keep the club in the top-flight and joined Newcastle on loan, where his goalscoring exploits continued.
After scoring 14 goals in 26 appearances for the Magpies, Remy was strongly linked with Arsenal and Chelsea in the summer of 2014. He had the opportunity to join Arsenal, who were desperate for new forwards, but instead opted to sign for Chelsea.
“I could’ve pushed to join Arsenal over Chelsea but I have zero regrets. It’s one of the best decisions I made in my career,” Remy told Plejmo.
“It was a natural choice for me to step up after a very good season at Newcastle personally, Chelsea came in and only on the last day of the transfer window did my agent find out about the interest from Arsenal.
“I have no regrets after going to Chelsea and winning the Premier League, my only regret is that I didn’t play as much as I would have liked. Apart from that it was a time alongside fantastic players and I’ll remember it forever.”
Remy helped Chelsea win the Premier League in his first season but played in only 19 matches and a total of 665 minutes – the equivalent of just seven full games. Despite that lack of game time, he struck seven top-flight goals.
Injuries got the better of Remy and he never matched the figures he produced for QPR and Newcastle. He scored once in 13 Premier League games in the season after, before managing only five appearances on loan at Crystal Palace in 2016-17.
Remy, who is now 38, was released by Chelsea in 2017, only three years after they paid £10.5million to sign him from QPR. He joined Las Palmas before a fruitful spell at Lille saw him threaten to rediscover his best form, scoring 14 times in 46 appearances.
Two years in Turkey, with Rizespor and Demirspor, followed. Remy subsequently hung up his boots after a short-term spell with Brest, where he failed to make an appearance in the second half of the 2022-23 season.
