Burnwinter wrote:
I didn't say I assume there's blanks to fill in, I make no judgement, seriously.
There's rumours about Arteta supposedly icing multiple players (Saliba, Guendouzi, Pépé, Maitland-Niles and Auba all told) but only one case where it's been this fatal.
And there's rumours about Aubameyang disgracing himself while on tour with Gabon the other week.
You can readily believe that Arteta's a psycho and the reason we've not heard more about this is there is no more, but I also find it plausible some other issue might be in play—as well as the looming problem of Auba's decline. You can make up what you want, it's a Rorschach blot.
The most interesting solid data we have in the past few days is that Arsenal, Aubameyang and Barcelona all worked hard to make this strange deal happen. Arsenal because we knew it was our one best chance to cut our losses on Auba's contract, Aubameyang because he also knew he wouldn't get a favourable move after six months in at least semi-exile, and Barcelona because they're in crisis. As Goon points out it's no bad thing in purely financial terms.
Wasn't solely aimed at you, but I've seen a lot of people say we just don't know what happened, and I think that's a bit weird, because we do know what happened. There might be more to it, but that's guesswork.
Anyway, I think all has been said on this for now, I don't disagree that all of it's no bad thing financially and it might well be Auba wouldn't have made a difference on the pitch either, but the guy was our best player for most of his tenure at Arsenal, he won us an FA Cup we had no right to win with some incredible goals and he had a great connection with the fans. I would have liked to see him go with a proper goodbye, for me personally that kind of stuff is important as a fan. Finishing 6th or 7th or whatever our minimum goal nowadays is I can stomach, but not when we at the same time treat our players unjustly. And unless it turns out Auba really did do something more that would justify his banishment, I'll remain bitter about it and Arteta's going to have to deliver big time for me to forgive him for that. Last I'll say on the matter, now it's up to the team to make me forget all about it and feel good about being an Arsenal fan again.
