Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry says Tony Pulis did not believe he was good enough to play Premier League football.
The 24-year-old spent the first half of the 2015/16 season on loan from Arsenal at West Brom, but only managed to appear for 12 minutes of Premier League action, and says the manager just did not rate him highly.
Gnabry joined Arsenal for £100,000 at the age of 16, and looked to be one of the Gunners' top young prospects.
However, after agreeing to a season-long loan at West Brom, Arsenal decided to recall him in January transfer window due to a lack of minutes.
When asked about the situation in an interview with the Mail on Sunday , Gnabry replied that there was only one person who could say why he did not get any game time.
"Tony Pulis. Ask Tony Pulis," he stated.
"Different styles, different opinions. I can't really say too much, but I tried my best at West Brom and it didn't work out.
"I was told I would be getting a lot of game time, otherwise I could have signed for another team. They really seemed like they were going to play me and I spoke to the manager before...
"Mentally for me, in that time at West Brom, I said to myself: 'Even though I have zero chance of playing, all I can do is work hard.' That mentality has stayed with me today and helped me to become a Bayern player.
"You always know your worth, off the pitch or on the pitch. I knew my capabilities. But I would say the mental side progressed really high during that time and helped me to be who I am now.
"I think that's one of the things you learn through your career, that it doesn't always go well. From a young age until I played in the first team at Arsenal it always went like this [gestures upwards] and then suddenly I learned: 'Woah, it doesn't always go up.' And I learned to deal with that.
"There was really no chance for me to play at West Brom... if the manager at the new club won't play you, then there is nobody who can help you, is there?"
Gnabry spent the remainder of the season at Arsenal before heading to Rio for the 2016 Olympics, and made the decision to leave for Werder Bremen based on his lack of time on the pitch.
"I was still pretty confident that I could have got in the team but I just didn't want to wait. I didn't want to be fourth or fifth (choice). At the Olympics I'd played five or six games (in a row), found my rhythm and I said to myself: 'OK, I need to play.'
"It was the hardest decision I ever had to make in football leaving a club like Arsenal, the fans, the players. But in the end I just didn't want to wait. To keep playing, I had to take a step back and in the end it was the right decision."
