Aubameyang, Guendouzi & Ozil at Arsenal: Was Arteta wrong?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang departs Arsenal as the third player in Mikel Arteta’s tenure to be frozen out of the squad entirely, before being moved on from the club permanently.

It is very apparent that above all in the club – talent, contract, wage or tactical fit – that culture comes first. Nothing is more important, and there are no exceptions to the rule.

Three players have fallen foul to that in just shy of two years. Few believe in coincidence.

All lost their places in the team for differing reasons, though. In the case of Mesut Ozil, pure ability appeared to shape the decision to keep him out of the team, having featured heavily under Arteta in the early stages of his reign. What took place behind the scenes was mostly kept under wraps.

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Aubameyang, Guendouzi & Ozil at Arsenal: Was Arteta wrong with how he handled the trio, and what impact will that have on him as a manager?

Guendouzi’s outburst at the AMEX Stadium was the beginning of his end at Arsenal, one characterised by reports of a disrespectful and childish attitude in training. Not afraid to speak his mind, a history of petulance and ill-discipline painted a clearer picture. One particular incident at a training camp in Dubai was the tip of the iceberg.

The latest player to be moves on after a period of forced isolation was Aubameyang, who too suffered the consequences, albeit under slightly differing circumstances. What is known in the public domain, and could be seen whenever featured on camera or on the pitch, was a cheerful character with an infectious smile who wouldn’t speak ill of anyone.

His disciplinary infractions were, as far as what is known, based majorly on a lack of professionalism in regards to time-keeping and, perhaps, the sense of being a superstar sometimes impacting how he would act on the outside. Again, a lot was kept hidden away under lock and key, so there is only so much an onlooker can know.

Which also applies to Arteta.

It’s difficult to judge each of these cases individually since the full details aren’t, and possibly never will, be fully divulged. Therefore there will always be some conjecture.

For that reason one needs to be open to the idea that Arteta was right in every single one of these cases and that the trio were completely unmanageable, just as there is every possibility that his actions were more forceful or excessive than they needed to be.

As far as putting a foot down there was certain merit to the decisions, especially at the beginning.

The culture at Arsenal was soft. Players were allowed to coast through contracts and use Arsenal as a cosy Premier League retirement home that paid you to live there. Making the stand that this entire football club has shifted from that comfort into a serious operation was an important step for the perception of the club, just as it was for Arteta ‘the manager’ and he what he stood for.

But for all the coaching tidbits that Arteta has picked up from his career, he won’t have accrued his own repertoire of management traits: how to handle egos, how to handle his own ego, or how to extract the fullest value from an asset in a way that isn’t as hardlined as ‘you’re all the way in or you’re all the way out’.

It will impact his future and what it is that he can achieve in the job, too.

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Arteta’s Solutions Can’t Always Be So Severe

In the cases of Ozil, Guendouzi and Aubameyang, decisions were made that he felt were the right ones made for the greater good. What he did was for the benefit of the individuals on and off the pitch, therefore positive rulings made for Arsenal as a collective.

We’ll also never know what may have been if Arteta had reconciled and found places in the team for all three. That’s an interesting parallel universe to consider.

But while in the case of all three of they were players he inherited meaning it is less likely his own additions will find themselves in similar scenarios, the situation with Aubameyang, for example, is one he played a significant role in.

Arteta championed for the striker to sign a new contract, convincing the owners and hierarchy to draw up the most lucrative contract in the history of the club, one that would take Aubameyang into his mid-30’s.

Less than 14 months later he is stripping the same player of the captaincy, banishing him from the team and trying to flog him off to anywhere that would take him in mid-season. A move that leaves him with two strikers who are out of contract in the summer to try and fire his side into the top four, having spent £150m in the previous window.

At some point someone, whoever that may be, Josh Kroenke or otherwise, is going to sit down with Arteta and ask him why the next time a similar request is put in they should have any reason to trust him. They will point to Ozil having to be paid off, a clearly talented Guendouzi leaving for a pittance of a fee to Marseille, and the £350k-per-week superstar captain joining Barcelona in January in a deal that can only be described as a get out of jail free card to Arsenal. They well and truly got away with that. All his wages paid for. Thank you very much, Barcelona.

Arteta being a firm manager does not always mean Arteta being a strong manager. A huge part of the job is improving the players at your disposal, just as it is eking every ounce of ability and use you can out of the others. Whether Arteta was right or wrong in one or all of the aforementioned cases, the next step is ensuring history doesn’t repeat itself.

Fans don’t enjoy it, and the ones funding it, his peers, will grow restless. For all we know this could have been the last straw. Next time a £350k-per-week player isn’t to his liking they will turn around to him and say ‘tough sh*t, you asked for him, you play him’.

Ensuring such an outcome doesn’t arise again means preventing it from ever beginning.