Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang used to be an Arsenal icon. Since Arsenal acquired him from Borussia Dortmund, he has been a reliable source of goals. At the start of every season, some of the best bookmakers on liontips.com usually allocate him attractive odds to win the Golden Boot at the end of the season.
Well, it has been an epic fall from grace for the Gabonese at the Emirates under Mikel Arteta. The warning bells rang noisily on December 11 when there was a conspicuous absence of Aubameyang from the Arsenal lineup against Southampton.
While we first suspected a stroke of misfortune (likely an unexpected injury or COVID-related disappearance), it was later revealed that Aubameyang had been excluded from the lineup for another disciplinary breach.
Everyone thought it was just a loving father’s whip on his child, after which all parties would quickly reconcile and enjoy a memorable dinner. But then Aubameyang’s seeming ostracism prolonged to absences against West Ham and subsequently Leeds.
As things stand, Aubameyang’s Arsenal career is hanging on the thread as he was released much earlier for national team (Gabon) duties in the upcoming AFCON.
But what really happened?
The official stand of the club controversially lacks specificness. Arsenal has stuck to a media blackout on the situation, preferring to only refer to Aubameyang’s absence as being forcefully inspired by a “disciplinary breach”.
However, journalists notoriously went sniffing. Consequently, findings have emerged generously beaming light and clarity on the situation.
It was revealed that Aubameyang had been granted a one-day window to visit his ailing mother in France.
He was requested to be back in London the same night to make morning training sessions for a crunch clash against Southampton.
Aubameyang would fail to return as officially arranged. And by the time he came back, COVID protocols required him to isolate from the main team, thereby missing training.
This severely angered the bosses at Arsenal, especially a Mikel Arteta striving to stamp discipline on his squad. The Spaniard would make the hard call of keeping Aubameyang from his lineup for the Southampton match.
Subsequently, it emerged that Aubameyang’s exclusion from the team wasn’t a unilateral decision from Arteta. It turns out that the decision-makers at Arsenal had already had it to their neck with Aubameyang’s characteristic penchant for indiscipline.
A club statement revealed Aubameyang had been stripped of captaincy duties. The statement as published on the club’s official statement read:
“Following his latest disciplinary breach last week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will no longer be our club captain, and will not be considered for selection for Wednesday’s match against West Ham United.
We expect all our players, particularly our captain, to work to the rules and standards we have all set and agreed.”
How badly have things gotten for Aubameyang since then?
So far, the Gabonese attacker has been strategically sequestered from the senior team. More than losing the revered captain band, Aubameyang no longer trains with the main team; neither does he share a dressing room with the senior squad.
In the match against Southampton, the captain band would fall to Alexandre Lacazette. Aubameyang inherited the captaincy from Granit Xhaka during the Unai Emery regime following Xhaka’s infamous bust-up against Arsenal fans.
As things appear, Arteta prefers the decision (of who would become the permanent captain) to be unrushed.
The decision has divided the general football public. While hands are clapping in commendation for Arteta’s bravado to whip a dog as big as Aubameyang, others empathize with Aubameyang, given he left to be with his sick mother.
…but Aubameyang has been a bad boy for long
We must bear in mind that Aubameyang has been one notorious chef serving Arsenal chiefs one disciplinary scandal after another.
Aubameyang’s bad-boy demons that escorted him to London from Dortmund seem not to have been yet exorcised.
Back in March 2021, Mikel Arteta was forced to drop Aubameyang from the starting lineup in a match against Tottenham.
The official stand was that Aubameyang was excluded from the starting lineup due to a “breach of prematch protocol”.
Reports from ESPN would later disclose that Arteta had planned to start the game with Aubameyang, only for the Gabonese goal machine to show up for the match late.
Was that his first erring?
Definitely not!
Just a month earlier, Aubameyang whipped up a furor on social media, leaving Arsenal’s PR department sweating.
With COVID protocols being religiously advocated, footage emerged on social media of Aubameyang jocularly furnishing himself with some nice tattoos.
Arsenal strangely kept mum on the incidence at the time, stating bluntly that it would rather not wash its dirty linens in public (preferring an internal resolution of the issue).
On more than one occasion, Aubameyang was suspended from the first team back in Dortmund. This shows a habitual tendency to foul the rules on Aubameyang’s part.
We can’t say if he would survive this breach this time. The media is rife with rumors of Arsenal enthusiastically pursuing replacements like Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
