10 Players Who Probably Regret Leaving Barcelona

5. Alexander Hleb

Alexander Hleb had a disappointing four-season spell at Barcelona that was punctuated by loan spells at Stuttgart, Birmingham and Wolfsburg with the Belarusian midfielder making only 19 appearances for the Catalan club, before being sold to Krylia Sovetov Samara in 2012. However, Hleb would later claim he regretted leaving Barca and that he should have done more to salvage his career at the Nou Camp. The ex-Arsenal player once said: "I shouldn't have left Barcelona.

"Now I would do everything differently. I should have fought to the end for a place in the Barca lineup."

Hleb let his emotions get the better of him during his time at Barca and took then-manager Pep Guardiola's decision not to name him in the starting XI as a personal slight, leading to hostilities between the pair. Hleb later admitted his immature attitude while at the Spanish giants led to his downfall. He continued:

"I was offended like a little kid. And I showed it: Sometimes I would run less in training, sometimes I would pose. The coach would tell me to do one thing, and I'd do something else in defiance. It was like kindergarten, I find it ridiculous now."

"Now I understand that it was my fault, because I provoked the conflict deliberately, by my own stupidity. I played every other game, I wanted to play more. After Arsenal, my ambitions were sky-high, and I always asked why I was being left on the bench after playing well."