Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit believes Gunners boss Mikel Arteta made the correct call in allowing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave for Barcelona.

The London club did not receive a fee for the 32-year-old, and will be paying some of his wages until the end of the season, but Petit claims his departure was necessary. He feels the £350,000 a week contract that Aubameyang signed in 2020 affected the player’s performances:

“I believe Arteta made the right decision on Aubameyang and he made his mark in the dressing room with the choice he made. To leave your captain out of a game and then put him on the transfer market is a very strong message to your dressing room. As the top earner at the club, like Aubameyang, was, you have a reasonability to your teammates and you need to show that on the pitch.”

“Aubameyang needs to understand that you have to show a high-level week-after-week and the fact he signed a new contract for big, big money may not be related to his current issue, but I will say the coincidence is huge. Straight after he signed that contract, he wasn’t the same player anymore. It wouldn’t have mattered if his future was with Arsenal or somewhere else, he needs to understand he has to go back to the player he was, with the same motivation and mentality that he had. Money is huge, but he has to get his anger back!”

Petit is right to point out that Aubameyang has not been the same player over the last couple of years but there are many reasons why that could have been the case.

The forward is getting older so he doesn’t have the lightning pace that he used to. On top of that, he may have been dealing with some personal problems, but the main issue does appear to be the poor relationship he had with Arteta.

After the Spaniard stripped him of the captaincy, communication between the pair had totally broken down so a departure seemed inevitable.