‘Disappointed and sad’ Wright defends ex-Arsenal striker Aubameyang
Ian Wright is “disappointed and sad” to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leave Arsenal and he does not think his exit is down to money.
The striker fell out of favour with Mikel Arteta in December. He was stripped of the captain’s armband at Arsenal following his latest “disciplinary breach”.
The Gunners were keen to let him go in January and on deadline day he agreed a permanent move to Barcelona.
January 2022 Premier League transfer window: the losers
Aubameyang scored 92 goals from his 162 appearances for Arsenal across all competitions.
Wright is sad that the player’s relationship with Arteta “could not be healed”:
“He’s taken a massive cut to go there and he’s willing to do that,” Wright said (via his latest Wrighty’s House podcast).
“With all the people saying he’s just signed a contract and just clocked off, he got offered the same money he’s on at Arsenal to go to Saudi Arabia.
“We’re talking about somebody who is a very colourful individual and plays football with a smile on his face. When it’s not right you can see it’s not right for him and it’s not about the money.
“Because he’s himself, he’s very colourful, people can easily get that mixed up. When he came to this country everybody talked about him as this party animal, but he’s not like that at all. He’s a family man. He’s a family man that likes colourful clothes and colourful cars, but scores goals.
“The saddest thing for me was that we don’t know what’s happened. I’m not really bothered to know what has happened now with him and Mikel. What couldn’t be healed in a time where we need goals.
“I’m quite disappointed that somewhere along the line something couldn’t have been resolved.
“But it’s not resolved, he’s gone and I’m sad to see him go.”
Wright went onto question Arsenal’s decision to offer Aubameyang a new £350,000 per week contract:
“If everything was going on before there would have been a lead-up of misdemeanours for the manager to maybe say, ‘You know something? No, let’s not sign him because I believe what’s happened up until this point… he’s been doing this, he’s been doing this and if that carries on… if we sign him for this much money what’s going to happen?’
“It just seems like if you knew there are things that he’s been doing that you don’t like and this is a chance for him to not sign again and to leave, then why did we sign him for so much money, put so much into him and then a year later he’s gone.”
