‘Too wild’ – Arteta accused of crazy player management

Gabriel Agbonlahor has claimed that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has ‘overly punished’ Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, before claiming he shouldn’t be captain regardless.

The former Borussia Dortmund forward was stripped from the role after the victory over Southampton, with Auba having been dropped from the that match-winning squad.

He has since been overlooked for the three successive squads after that also, and at present their is no inclination that he is set to be returning on Boxing Day when we take on Norwich either.

Agbonlahor claims that the manager has been over-the-top however, and claims he can be ‘too wild’ when dealing with his team.

“Arteta has done well as a manager but I think his treatment of players can be a bit too wild for me,” Agbonlahor told the Football Insider.

“For the offence, Aubameyang has committed I think he’s been overly punished. It’s been overkill. You’d think he’d committed a massive crime.

“Stripped of the captaincy might have been overkill but you understand it. Get someone else in there who is always going to obey the rules and not do anything wrong. Aubameyang was never a captain for me, he’s not captain material. No problems with that.

“Miss a game, ok. It’s a bit harsh but you’re ok with that.

“But then you banish him to train on his own is massive overkill. That’s crazy. It’s like Arteta’s on a power trip. They’ve been winning games so he’s thought ‘Ok, I’m just going to keep him out.

“It’s too much, to be honest. If he’d been caught having a covid party with 100 people enjoying life, partying and drinking, that’s different, I’d understand. He’s gone to get his mum, for goodness sake, give the guy a break.”

Maybe Agbonlahor didn’t hear the recent rumour that Auba did in fact throw a party before the start of the season which resulted in his absence from the opening matches on top of the latest incident…

Either way, he’s entitled to his opinion as a player himself, and I believe that it would be much easier to have an opinion if we did in fact know all the facts. Unfortunately we are left to guess what to believe from other sources instead.

From the information you are aware of, do you believe Arteta has been wild in his reaction to the situation?

Patrick

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