Why did I leave Arsenal? Many years later and I still think about it. I don't understand. To this day I still don't understand what happened or why I made the decision.

The above words were said by Alexander Hleb on many occasions, phrased differently of course. Even though it has been over 14 years since he left Arsenal, the Belarusian player still has yet to make sense of his decision.

The Alexander Hleb story is about a concept that is very relative from one person to another. It is a concept that is very sneaky, a concept that is basically an intersection. A concept that an 18 years old Belarusian couldn't fully comprehend as he moved from the second team of Dinamo-Juni Minsk to the first team of BATE Borisov in 1999.

That concept didn't matter to Hleb as the biggest thing he could see is that his career was developing in an upward trajectory. It was moving upward and quickly, also in a way that is very befitting of his talent.

He went from the second team of a club that was the team with the most titles in the Belarusian league to an up-and-coming challenger from the second division to the first, BATE Borisov. A club that has gone on to become the most successful club in the country in a great rise. A rise that Hleb didn't witness much of as he barely spent a season there before
getting signed by VfB Stuttgart after winning the league.

Hleb's talent and career growth trajectory were simply too big for him to wait for a club like BATE Borisov to dominate the league with him. After five years at Stuttgart, Arsene Wenger has laid his eyes on the Belarusian as a potential signing. So far it just makes sense, doesn't it? Hleb's stardom seemed to reach a great high at only 24.

The only difference between his move between his native clubs and the move from Stuttgart to Arsenal is that Arsenal's trajectory was heading the opposite way of BATE Borisov as Arsenal has begun its free fall. Arsenal had just won the FA Cup in 2004-2005 and finished second in the league behind Mourinho's Chelsea with 83 points.

When Helb joined, Arsenal didn't know that it would wait another 9 years before winning another title, and definitely didn't know that it would have to wait until this very season before it could accumulate 83 points again. Not that those 83 points are guaranteed now either.

Hleb Was Special At Arsenal

I honestly don't know what it is exactly that was special about Alexander Hleb, and why I am so attached to that player in specific. Maybe it's appreciation, sympathy, or admiration, I don't know exactly what made me love him, and why him in specific.

Hleb was always on my mind, he always had a special place in my heart. I honestly said on more than one occasion that if I was to bring a player from that Arsenal era to the current Arsenal team, it would be Alexander Hleb. I only recently understood why I had such feelings toward Alexander Hleb.

Alexander Hleb was a very romantic story in a way. Most people, especially here in the Arab world, only knew of the existence of a country called Bellarusia through Alexander Hleb. He was tall and skinny, and I was never able to understand his position either. It was the perfect hero story, it starts with doubt and ends with him proving those doubts wrong.

Arsenal, in specific, had many experiments with such players. Wenger himself had such a journey, Thiery Henry was a reject at Juventus, and Bergkamp failed at Inter Milan. Patrick Vieira failed at AC Milan, I doubt many people even know or remember that he ever played there. Along with Kolo Toure, Gilberto Silva, and Ljungberg were all unknown, rejected, and doubted by fans before proving themselves. Such a group was completed with Alexander Hleb.

Something else that reminded me of Hleb, in general, was the fact that I only saw recently a player that reminded me of him, Bernardo Silva. If you haven't seen Hleb then he was Bernardo Silva before Bernardo Silva, or more like Bernardo Silva is the new Alexander Hleb. Just a player who players left, right, and down the centre. Great attacking skills and defensive effort. Alexander Hleb was also one of those with exceptional ball control and was always underrated.

Perhaps that was also another reason why he is always remembered by many Arsenal despite scoring very little and assisting very little. The best likening to Bernanrdo Silva that I read was in an article by Tom Victor.

Some of the world’s greatest are often credited for making football look really easy, but the beauty of Hleb came from how difficult he made everything seem.

Almost every single touch was deliberate in a manner unique to him, as if his very possession of the ball was a threat to him staying upright. While others went on one individual run, he went on a series of miniature ones each time he got the ball.

Each touch was like the start of a micro-dribble, as if he felt he needed to start again multiple times during each dribble. And while this might have hindered others, for him it was a chance to pinch the ball away from the nearest man at the latest possible moment.

While the approach can see you caught in possession and, yes, accused of trying to do too much, when it comes off it can make the other team look very, very stupid. And really, isn’t that the point of football?

Alexander Hleb on the ball was the summit of football suspense, you always feel like he is about to fall, yet he doesn't, or he does but gets up right away. There's nothing that looks easy for him. I have a similar feeling with Bernardo Silva. Both make me feel like they are too open with almost loose limbs that aren't controlled. Every move felt like a film really with an opening, a middle, and an end.

Oddly enough, and much like Bernardo Silva, Alexander Hleb's style which looks chaotic at times, always gave me a feeling of trust. Not necessarily trust that he would succeed all the time, but trust that no matter what, he will do everything he can to make the situation work. So much like a film, it is suspenseful as he could lose the ball but not your respect as he will get right back up to tackle, create a foul, or just run at the full possible speed to defend to fix his error.

So, how does moving to a Barcelona team that is labelled the best ever by many considered a bad move? Well, we'll find out in the next part.