Debuchy, 31, has played just 16 minutes of Premier League football this season after being unable to dislodge Hector Bellerin as Wenger's first-choice right-back.

The France international was in a similar position last season, and spent the second half of the 2015-16 campaign on loan at Bordeaux in a last-ditch effort to secure a place in Les Bleus' Euro 2016 squad.

An injury late in the season ended those hopes, but Debuchy says he would have been turning out in the colours of United if not for Wenger vetoing a potential switch to Old Trafford 12 months ago.

"I wasn't playing a lot, it was United, there's nothing else to say. For me, it was almost unexpected, but the coach said no," said Debuchy, who played in just two Premier League matches last season. "It's something I did not appreciate. He wasn't using me, so I didn't see his interest in doing that."

Debuchy, who has been sidelined with a thigh injury since November, added that he and fellow Frenchman Wenger are now barely on speaking terms.

"We acknowledge each other, we say hello, nothing more," he said.
Mathieu Debuchy has struggled for game time at Arsenal.

Debuchy could also have had the chance to leave in the summer, with both Espanyol and Fiorentina reportedly interested in acquiring the full-back, who joined Arsenal after an impressive spell at Newcastle United in 2014.

"I had opportunities at the end of the transfer window," Debuchy said. "Unfortunately, the club didn't want to let me go. I had a good preseason, I gave my all, but from the first game, I wasn't in the squad. It was a real blow. I said to myself that things weren't starting well.

"My situation doesn't meet what I had been hoping for, but that's football. There have been things, injuries and the coach's choices that have meant that I haven't played. Even if I don't understand, I'm not surprised, I know how it works."

Debuchy added: "I have had some very difficult moments. Now, I try to channel that, to take it out in my work. I don't show anything, I dig in. I have always worked like that."

The full-back, who is under contract at Arsenal until 2019, says he wants to leave the club in a bid to secure first-team football elsewhere.

"[I want] a way out. I want to take on a new challenge, to get back into it, to simply do my job properly. At a given time, you miss the excitement, the adrenaline..." he said, adding a reunion at Marseille with his former coach, Rudi Garcia, whom he spent four-and-a-half years with at Lille, was a possibility.

"I told my agents to get back to me only if there was something concrete. But Marseille is Marseille. Even if the results have been a bit difficult, it's still one of the biggest clubs in Ligue 1. Also, there is a great project being put in place with a coach I know well."