BREAKING NEWS: I Love Arsenal so much to the point that I want to RETURN even after what they have done to me in the past but let it be known that my coming back will not be possible except if this particular Arsenal player is not sold BECAUSE He was the main Reason why I left”, Former Captain Aubameyang reveals the only CONDITION that will make Him return back to EMIRATE this January Amid speculation that Arteta wants Him back
BREAKING NEWS: I Love Arsenal so much to the point that I want to RETURN even after what they have done to me in the past but let it be known that my coming back will not be possible except if this particular Arsenal player is not sold BECAUSE He was the main Reason why I left”, Former Captain Aubameyang reveals the only CONDITION that will make Him return back to EMIRATE this January Amid speculation that Arteta wants Him back
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has declared he regrets being persuaded to sign a new Arsenal deal – and slowly gave up at the Emirates.
Once a huge fan favourite in north London, Aubameyang became embroiled in a bust-up with boss Mikel Arteta in 2021 and was subsequently stripped of the captaincy.
The dispute centred on Aubameyang’s late return from France where he was caring for his sick mother in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It led to the striker sealing a free transfer to Barcelona in the 2022 winter transfer window, before later returning to the Premier League with Chelsea.
In the tail end of the Covid-hit 2019/20 season, Aubameyang was faced with the proposition of signing a new contract at Arsenal or moving onto pastures new.
Arsenal were travelling to their FA Cup semi-final clash with Manchester City when he was posed a question by former teammate Alexandre Lacazette.
“Laca asked me, ‘What are you going to do?’ I was like, ‘To tell you the truth, I really don’t know,” Aubameyang recalled in an interview with The Athletic
The Gabon international went on to inspire Arsenal to victory over City before helping the Gunners lift the FA Cup, beating Chelsea in the final – scoring a double in each of the games.
In the midst of a whirlwind, Aubameyang was persuaded to sign a new £350,000-a-week deal by Arteta which made him the highest paid player in the club’s history, however the agreement failed to work out for both player and club.
If I’m being honest, at that time I wanted to go,” Aubameyang revealed. “For me, it was time to find a new challenge. I did my time. It was very nice, but I needed to change.
“It had been four years, I did great and maybe it was time to leave it like this, proper and clean, so people remember me as a good Arsenal player. I felt I needed to go because if I stayed, something would go wrong.”
Arteta proved to be a convincing figure for Aubameyang as he outlined his vision for future player recruitment and new innovative methods of play.
“He convinced me,” Aubameyang added. “He said, ‘I think you can leave a legacy’. I think it was the first time I heard this word in English.
“He said, ‘If you stay, you can be an icon, like the big names at Arsenal’. I started to change my vision. He and the fans convinced me to stay. But at first, I wanted to leave. This is where it got chaotic, because when you go against your heart, maybe this is where I made my mistake.”
Despite still operating at the top of his game, Aubameyang admits personal trauma soon came to the fore as his time at Arsenal began to wind down.
“I felt it progressively,” he said. “Slowly, slowly, I was kind of giving up. Sometimes there are things more important than football. Maybe people don’t realise, because they think football is the most important thing but that is not true.”
Stating he needed to ‘feel love again’ after Arsenal, Aubameyang linked up with the Blaugrana, but lasted just seven months in Spain.
Part of his reasoning for leaving Barcelona was due to a horrifying situation where he was the victim of a violent robbery at his home in the Catalan city.
