Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has addressed footage of him that went viral in which he slammed his old Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and insists he wishes everyone at his former club well.
The Gabon striker left the Emirates in February of this year after Arsenal agreed to terminate his contract, allowing him to join Barcelona on a free transfer after the January transfer window had closed.
Arteta was desperate to offload Aubameyang having stripped him of the captaincy and forced him to train with the youth team following several disciplinary issues, the last of which saw him return late from a trip to Paris.
The 33-year-old only spent six months at Camp Nou before returning to the Premier League with this summer, though enjoyed a prolific – if brief – stint with Barca.
Shortly after moving to Catalunya, Aubameyang filmed an interview with on their YouTube channel, which has only been released recently, .
‘We knew the coach, Xavi, then he called me and said there is an opportunity because you have those problems with Arsenal, but if you come you will help us a lot, so I said okay,’ explained Aubameyang in the video.
‘But to manage big characters or big players, he [Arteta] can’t deal with it. He [Arteta] needs some young players, they don’t say anything, they listen.’
While Aubameyang has stopped short of a full apology for his criticism of Arteta, he has acknowledged that his comments were said somewhat in the heat of the moment having only recently left Arsenal for Barcelona when the remarks were made.
‘I’m aware there is a video out that was recorded just after I arrived at Barca. At the time I still had a lot of bad feelings in me,’ he tweeted on Monday afternoon.
‘Arsenal are doing great things this season and I wish all my old guys well, just not on November 6 [when Chelsea host the Gunners]. Now full focus on tomorrow [against AC Milan in the Champions League].’
In the video, Aubameyang had also hit out at accusations he was only motivated by money – and the rumoured £350,000-a-week contract he was on at Arsenal.
‘I wanted to show them [Arsenal] because they thought this guy [only plays] because of the money,’ he added. ‘But okay, let me go everywhere else I’ll show you, that’s no problem, I will show you.’
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