Having flopped quite dramatically whilst at Arsenal, Gervinho has gone on to thrive at Roma after his move to Italy last summer.
The 27-year-old claims Arsene Wenger showed no faith in him during an unsuccesful two year stint at the North London club. The Ivory Coast international has stated that Roma are allowing him to show his full repertoire on the field and his career is once again flourishing.
The enigmatic forward has had quite a lot to say about his current situation, and his unhappy time in the Premier League: ‘I don’t feel like I have anything to prove in England. I think the proof of what I can do is shown by a coach that has confidence in me.
‘Maybe Arsenal now think they should have shown more confidence in me – but that is not my problem. All my concentration is on a successful season with Roma.
‘I feel like a new player in Italy. It is very hard to have confidence in yourself when the coach does not have confidence in you – and it’s clear at Arsenal that confidence was not shown in me.
‘At Roma the coach and the staff showed confidence in me from the first day – and because of that I have been able to show exactly what I am capable of.
‘I can’t think of any good reason why we should be scared of Manchester City – I don’t see why we should fear Bayern Munich either,’ said Gervinho. ‘The way we are playing this season – there is no reason to think we can’t beat anybody. The only team that we need to concentrate or think about is ourselves.’
Roma won their opening Champions League fixture 5-1 against CSKA Moscow and must go into their fixture at the Etihad with some considerable confidence.
‘It was important in such a difficult group that we won our opening game – but we will not be looking for just a point at Manchester City.
‘The pressure is on them after losing their opening game – and we hope to take full advantage of that pressure – and leave Manchester with 3 points – which will put us in a great position to qualify
‘We want to win this group. We understand with the quality in the group that it will not be easy to win – but with the form that we are on anything is possible. Not just to win the group – but also win the Champions League.
‘There is a lot of belief in this team at the moment – and we feel it is something we can achieve.’
You have to admire his confidence to be fair.
Written by Michael Horne
Follow me on Twitter for more articles @MichaelHorne777
