Yoane Wissa has opened up on his Brentford departure, insisting he had “the right to have ambition”
Yoane Wissa has spoken about his Brentford exit, insisting he still has affection for the club but felt he had earned the right to pursue a new challenge at Newcastle.
The forward left Brentford after four years in west London, having developed into one of the club’s most important Premier League attackers. His departure came after a final season in which he scored 20 goals without penalties, a return he described as a “great achievement” in an exclusive interview with Joel Beya for ThreesixtyTV.
Wissa admitted leaving Brentford was difficult because of the connection he had built at the club.
“It’s difficult because when you leave a place that you really love, you know what I mean?” Wissa said.
“But don’t get me wrong. I have the right to have ambition, you know what I mean?”
The 29-year-old suggested his move had been discussed before Thomas Frank’s departure, and said the change of manager affected the situation.
“Everything was almost agreed before I left Brentford,” he said. “But I think the main thing that made everything change was when Thomas Frank left.”
Wissa said Brentford were aware of his ambitions after several meetings with the club’s hierarchy, even if the final decision was not simple.
“As a football player, I’ve got a lot of ambition,” he said. “I had a lot of meetings, respectful meetings, with the owner, with the sporting directors. But they knew. So that’s why they accepted me to leave.
“Even if it was difficult for them to accept because the new manager wanted me to stay, I said to them, ‘We agreed something before.’”
The forward also revealed he later held a two-hour meeting with Brentford’s owner, where both sides explained their position.
“We spoke for two hours,” Wissa said. “He explained his side. I explained my side.
“In the end I think he was happy. I was happy. And I think we are still good friends. Sometimes we are still in touch.”
Wissa’s comments offer a more personal account of a transfer that came after a highly productive spell at Brentford. He scored 45 Premier League goals in 137 appearances for the club, and said his best season came from the relationships he built with teammates such as Bryan Mbeumo, Mikkel Damsgaard and Christian Norgaard.
“People don’t know I stayed for four years in Brentford. People thought I was there two years,” he said.
“It was such a great achievement for me, especially personally, to show that I can score goals.”
Wissa also paid tribute to Frank’s influence on his development, saying the former Brentford head coach helped change his game through detailed weekly work.
“Honestly, Thomas Frank changed my game,” Wissa said. “For one and a half years, almost every week, he had meetings with me because he wanted me to change my game, adapt to the team.”
For Brentford, Wissa’s interview underlines the complexity of losing a key player who had become central to their Premier League rise. His departure was not without tension, but his words suggest the relationship ended with mutual understanding rather than lasting conflict.