Stripping Aubameyang of captaincy is huge. It’s a big, bold call from Arteta
WLook at Jordan Henderson — he sets standards every single day
HEN you are presented with the captain’s armband, you receive not only your club’s highest honour but also a set of unwritten rules.
The responsibilities of being skipper are huge. Your standards have to be the highest in the squad and you must set the right tone on a daily basis.
What you do on the pitch is important but the message you send out with your approach in the dressing room is critical.
So to be stripped of that role is huge. If a manager decides that is the only course of action, it’s difficult to see a way back for the individual. Time will tell, but it is a real possibility that Mikel Arteta may have ended Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Arsenal career this week.
Talking about the specifics of this situation is difficult as we are not privy to the rules set out by Arteta when he gave permission for his star striker to go to see his sick mother in France. That element of the story naturally leads some observers to think Aubameyang has been harshly treated but if he stepped out of line and breached club protocols, he had to be punished. Arteta clearly felt he needed to do it even if he may have brought focus on himself, as his decision has increased the spotlight on Arsenal.
In all my years as a player, I never saw anyone lose the captaincy for a breach of rules. I was a captain myself and have to admit there was a point at Aston Villa when I failed to set the best example.
When Villa were fighting to stay in the top flight, I was pictured in Dubai during an international break. I had permission and didn’t do anything wrong while I was there, but even so, the perception the picture created was poor.
Hindsight tells me I should never have put myself in that position — what message did it send to the rest of the squad?
That’s what I mean about unwritten rules. You can’t put a toe, never mind a foot, out of line when you lead the group.
Look at Jordan Henderson and James Milner at Liverpool. People say they aren’t world class and are boring but nothing could be further from the truth. They are diamonds as lads, but what makes them world class is the levels they set around the camp every single day.
Aubameyang is the latest Arsenal captain to find himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons, following Granit Xhaka, who threw the armband on the floor after being booed by his own supporters, and, before him, Laurent Koscielny, who refused to go on a pre-season tour in order to push through a move.
Former manager Unai Emery picked Aubameyang to be his skipper after the furore with Xhaka and, at the time, it was the right decision. He was in outstanding form, had just won the Premier League’s Golden Boot and was Arsenal’s talisman.
Now, unfortunately, critics will see him as the scapegoat for all of Arsenal’s shortcomings. It’s a convenient excuse but it’s wrong. I won’t defend Aubameyang’s late return but I will defend him against those who believe he is the reason Arsenal remain off the pace in the Premier League.
Has his form been great since he signed a new deal in August 2020? No. Aubameyang hasn’t scored since the middle of October and that isn’t good enough for a player of his quality. But he couldn’t do everything on his own just because he had been handed a big contract.
It was the same with Mesut Ozil, when they gave him that contract worth a reported £350,000 a week. It is almost as if Arsenal hand one big contract out to their biggest name and expect them to produce fireworks single-handedly.
Arsenal failed to make the right signings to give Ozil or Aubameyang the opportunity to go to higher levels of performance. They may have improved the contracts of their best players but the club regressed because they failed to improve their squad.
I said 12 months ago that Arteta was the man who could stop people laughing at Arsenal and they have been doing reasonably well. In three or four years’ time, this could turn out to be a proper Arsenal team, capable of challenging for the top honours, especially if Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka keep progressing.
The one thing that will threaten progress more than anything is players who are not prepared to meet the standards that Arteta expects on a daily basis.
The Spaniard is a coach I admire and someone who has impressed me when I have seen him work. He has looked at the bigger picture and made a stand with Aubameyang. By not meeting Arteta’s disciplinary expectations he disrespected everyone in the dressing room.
If you are a captain, that is something you can never do.