February 05, (THEWILL) – Following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s contentious exit from Arsenal, Mikel Arteta came out to address the “unity and spirit” in the current Gunners’ squad.
THEWILL recalls that after a turbulent last 18 months at the Emirates Stadium, the Gabonese forward left by mutual consent in a permanent move to Barcelona, which the Catalan club officially confirmed on Tuesday.
Aubameyang experienced a drastic drop in form especially in the period after renewing his contract with a vision to wrap up his senior career at the Emirates.
The ex-Arsenal captain, when asked if he had any problems with Arteta or with the club road could have caused his exit, said: “Yeah, I think it was just with him. I can’t say much, he wasn’t happy, I stayed calm and that’s it.”
The Gunners have been undertaking warm-weather training in Dubai since Aubameyang’s departure, and in an interview with the club’s official website, Arteta seemed to poke fun at Aubameyang by saying that the squad is currently united amongst other objectives:
“We had a break of two weeks and thought of the best way to maximise it, and felt the best way was to stay together for a week or so in a different environment, but with clear objectives for this week. Not only physically but mentally, it’s been a tough season and a tough few years.
“We wanted to take this opportunity to get a few things from it. The first thing, the training camp in these conditions is beautiful. We want to keep improving the efficiency of our game model and it’s a beautiful place to do it.
“The second one is to set clear objectives for what we want to do at the end of the season. We have 17 games to finish, how we are going to do it and what we want to achieve in those games.
“The third one was about building the unity and the spirit that is in the group and that has to be maintained.
“There’s no better way to do it not only with the players but as well with the families because they are a big part of what we do and we need them on board to keep pushing every day.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
