Tam wrote:
But the discussion of all of that is absolving Aubameyang of blame here. He’s a 32 year old captain who knows what is acceptable and what isn’t. It’s bigger than being disrespectful to Arteta, it’s disrespectful to the his squad and the club.
I agree with this view Tam. He's a 32 year old club captain, he should know better. He has responsibilities towards his teammates and he gets paid and treated in a way that reflects that. Arsenal have failed him in a big way since he came here, but his teammates and the fans (bar Sicario) have never given him anything but their love and support. I support Arteta's decision to drop him if (and that's a pretty big if) that's really what happened here.
The more I see of Arteta the more convinced I am that he's the biggest disruptive element at the club though. There's a falling out with him every week for some reason or other while he backs his own favourites completely, even when it means that he also backs himself into a corner.
People can take the view that he's doing some much needed housecleaning in the squad if they want, but I view it as the same trait that makes it impossible for Mourinho to keep a job down. It's not a feature, it's a personality bug, and it's going to lose you both the fans and the dressing room quickly, especially when you're a substandard manager to boot.
There have been things brewing at Arsenal behind the scenes for the last three years, and when your manager is involved in all your issues both on and off the pitch it ends up reflecting badly on him in my eyes. It's not like there's a great payoff that makes all of this turmoil worth it either; every season we keep getting worse and worse results. Another hallmark of a fraudulent coach. If we can spot it it's naive to think the players can't.
