Mikel Arteta compiled a dossier of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s misdemeanours before banishing the striker from his first-team squad — defying pressure from senior figures at Arsenal to keep him in the fold.
The Arsenal manager made detailed notes about the incidents, including times and dates, building up evidence before dropping Aubameyang and stripping him of the captaincy for multiple disciplinary breaches in December last year.
Arteta did not relent, despite the likes of Edu, Arsenal’s technical director, urging him to give Aubameyang another chance, and the club terminated his contract, worth £350,000 a week, by paying him about £7 million before he joined Barcelona as a free agent in February. Arsenal were left with one fewer senior striker and went on to finish outside the Champions League places.
Arteta initially defended his decision to sideline Aubameyang at a press conference, following which he told one of the club’s communications staff that he had kept evidence. The sequence was caught in the Amazon Prime Video documentary All Or Nothing, the next three episodes of which will be released on Thursday.
“That is why I have everything documented with the dates, the times . . . how it happened, why it happened . . . because if one day it is needed . . . ” Arteta said. “He has been late, apart from all the issues, many times. The club has got a tradition. When you get paid that much money . . . ”
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During a conference call, one of the club’s lawyers is seen telling Edu and Richard Garlick, Arsenal’s director of football operations, that they were legally “on the back foot” for exiling Aubameyang from training. She asked whether the club had more evidence beyond him returning from France a day late after visiting his unwell mother. Garlick replied: “Mikel has a file, a catalogue of misdemeanours he has had which has culminated in this,” to which the lawyer replied: “It is not perfect.”
Edu admitted that it was “not easy” to support Arteta because Aubameyang scored goals (92 in 163 games for the club) and was well liked by the players. He told Vinai Venkatesham, the Arsenal chief executive: “We have to talk to Aubameyang and to Mikel. He has to come back to the squad and help us until the end of the season.” Venkatesham agreed. “We are going to have to reintegrate him. We have to,” he said.
Arteta made his final decision because he looked into Aubameyang’s eyes and felt the “trust” was not there between them. The striker travelled to Barcelona to seal his transfer — something the club only learnt from social media posts. Arsenal were told by one of Aubameyang’s representatives that the player was in Barcelona for a “private” reason and because his father lived there. Edu responded: “So we live in Disneyworld?”
Meanwhile, Granit Xhaka has urged Arsenal to let supporters attend training sessions to give them a fuller picture of how players have been working.
The midfielder said fans might be more sympathetic if they could see a player has simply had an off-day in a match, despite working hard during training. Xhaka has previously admitted that his relationship with the club’s supporters was permanently damaged after he clashed with a section of fans when he was substituted against Crystal Palace three years ago — an incident which led to him being stripped of the captaincy.
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Xhaka, 29, cited Nuno Tavares, the left back, who is shown in All Or Nothing as struggling to come out of his shell in his first season in England, during which he made a series of high-profile mistakes. The 22-year-old has since been loaned to Marseille.
“I spoke with the club, ‘Why can’t we bring the fans maybe once a week so they can see how we train?’ ” Xhaka said. “It is not like we are coming here to waste our time and after we don’t care about the 90 minutes.
“We care more than people think. Me and Aaron Ramsdale, for example, can’t sleep after the game when we lose. This makes me very disappointed and very sad when people say, ‘You didn’t give everything for the club, you did that, you did . . . ’ This is bullshit.”
Premier League clubs do not let fans watch training sessions, except for on rare occasions during pre-season. Arsenal have said that Xhaka’s suggestion was discussed but they felt there were a number of obstacles.
Xhaka said it was different when he played at Borussia Mönchengladbach, before joining Arsenal in 2016. “It is so difficult in England to bring the people to the training ground whereas in Germany it is different, you have two, three, four thousand people and they come every day,” he said. “The people who do not see us training do not see how hard we work. They see us only for 90 minutes.
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“Everyone has a good and bad day. Everyone loves you today, then tomorrow maybe you have one bad game and the story is different.”
Xhaka allowed his family to be filmed at home during the Amazon documentary to try to illustrate what they went through after a game. He is Arsenal’s second longest-serving player behind Mohamed Elneny but has been close to leaving on two occasions since he was angrily jeered off by home fans and responded by cupping his ear to them against Palace in October 2019. He was stripped of the armband when he refused to apologise but was persuaded to stay by Arteta, when he took over as head coach a month later.
The relationship with the fans has never been fully repaired, though Xhaka believes that there has been a softening in attitudes towards him since he scored a spectacular goal in a 3-1 home win against Manchester United in April.
“It was maybe one of the greatest moments since signing, and three years ago I would have said this would never happen,” the Switzerland midfielder said. “I feel much more love from the fans and I am trying to build something with them again. It needs time. People only see the moment against Palace and forget the other five years and they give you a number, good or bad.
“Mikel is the reason why I’m still at the club. Three years ago my suitcases were packed. Mikel said, ‘Give me a chance for six months and if you are still not happy, you can leave.’ ”
