Agbonlahor lambasts Mikel Arteta as controversial new Arsenal footage emerges
Gabby Agbonlahor has slammed Mikel Arteta for his treatment of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in his final months at Arsenal.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Aston Villa and England forward delivered his verdict as new footage emerged via the All or Nothing Documentary on Amazon Prime last week (11 August).
Aubameyang was shown training alone and isolated from the rest of the squad after being stripped of the club captaincy.
The 33-year-old was eventually sold to Barcelona in the January transfer window in a deal heavily subsidised by Arsenal.
“I didn’t like it,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“I do rate Arteta and I think he’s done a lot of good things at Arsenal and I’ve loved the documentary, even though I don’t look into too much because he knows the cameras are there. If I knew the camera was there I’d be prime Sir Alex Ferguson in the dressing room!
“I understand you don’t want the player, I understand you want to get rid of him but don’t make him train on his own.
“It happened to me and it happened to people I played with. It’s the worst thing that can happen as a footballer, your mental health is at a record low.
“You’re alone, you feel like a bad egg and your teammates are scared to speak to you.
“You’re training on your own or with the youth team and you feel demoralised. That’s what clubs try and do to force you to leave, make you so uncomfortable coming to work that you want to leave.
“I don’t like that and I’ll never like that. I don’t rate Arteta for doing that.
“He looks like he’s got the respect of the players and demands top performances but you can’t tell because it’s hard to tell with a documentary.”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has claimed Arsenal have been “blinded by the cheque” after a ruling is made.