Arsenal star Gabriel Magalhaes has lifted the lid on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s controversial 2022 exit from the club.
The last few days of Aubameyang’s Arsenal career were littered with further rumours of a rift between the Gabonese international and manager Mikel Arteta.
Arteta had previously stripped the 32-year-old of the club captaincy in 2021 after a string of club rule breaks by the former Borussia Dortmund hitman.
“Aubameyang is in my heart, we all wanted him at Arsenal,” Gabriel told Ohmygoal, reported via Football London.
“It (his exit) is something that happened between him and the coaching staff, the other players were not involved in it.
“I said goodbye to him before he left, I hope he enjoys Barcelona, he is a nice person with a big heart and I love him very much.”
Magalhaes’ comments appear to back up the idea of Arteta and his coaching team reaching a point of no return in their relationship with Aubameyang.
However, despite the negativity surrounding his departure from the Emirates Stadium, Aubameyang has hit the ground running on his arrival in Catalonia.
Everyone’s a winner. Aubameyang wasn’t happy / playing well and it was affecting the team. He’s gone, now doing well, good luck to him!
‘The other players were not involved in it’…🤦🏻♂️
Yet there he is, doing just that, pointing fingers…getting involved.
As much as I love the passion of this current squad I feel like there might be another player or two that will have to be showed through the door on their way out, before it fully sinks in with the rest of the squad that respect is not a given, it needs to be earned. Arteta has been working wonders behind the scenes, sadly some big egos in this team were meant to be rid of.