Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang admits 'giving up' on Arsenal and why Chelsea nightmare was doomed from the start
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has declared that he regrets being persuaded to sign a new contract with Arsenal and slowly gave up at the Emirates.
Aubameyang, once a big fan favorite in north London, became embroiled in a row with the boss. Mikel Arteta in 2021 and was subsequently stripped of captaincy.
The dispute centered on aubameyangThe belated return from France, where she was caring for her sick mother at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This led to the striker sealing a free transfer to Barcelona in the 2022 winter transfer window, before returning to the Premier League with Chelsea.
At the end of the Covid-affected 2019/20 season, Aubameyang was faced with the proposal of signing a new contract at Arsenal or move on to pastures new.
Arsenal were traveling to their FA Cup semi-final clash with city of manchester when his former teammate Alexandre Lacazette asked him a question.
“Laca asked me: 'What are you going to do?' I thought, 'To tell you the truth, I really don't know,' Aubameyang recalled in an interview with The Athletic.
The Gabon international inspired Arsenal to victory over City before helping the Gunners lift the FA Cup, beating Chelsea in the final, scoring a brace in each of the games.
Amid a whirlwind, Arteta convinced Aubameyang to sign a new £350,000-a-week contract that made him the highest-paid player in the club's history, however the deal did not work out for either the player or the club. .
“If I'm honest, at that moment I wanted to go,” Aubameyang revealed. “For me, it was time to find a new challenge. I served my sentence. It was very nice, but it needed to change.
“Four years have passed, I did very well and maybe it was time to leave it like this, correct and clean, so that people remember me as a good Arsenal player. I felt like I had to leave because if I stayed, something would go wrong.”
Arteta proved to be a compelling figure for Aubameyang as he outlined his vision for future player recruitment and innovative new methods of play.
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“He convinced me,” Aubameyang added. “He said, 'I think you can leave a legacy.' I think it was the first time I heard this word in English.
“He said: 'If you stay, you can be an icon, like the big names at Arsenal.' I started to change my vision. He and the fans convinced me to stay. But at first I wanted to leave. “This is where it got chaotic, because when you go against your heart, maybe that’s where I made my mistake.”
Despite continuing to perform at the top of his game, Aubameyang admits that personal trauma soon came to the fore as his time at Arsenal began to end.
“I felt it progressively,” he said. “Slowly, little by little, I was giving up. Sometimes there are things more important than football. Maybe people don't realize it because they think football is the most important thing, but that's not true.”
Aubameyang claimed he needed to “feel the love again” after Arsenal and joined the Blaugrana, but lasted only seven months in Spain.
Part of his reasoning for leaving Barcelona was due to a horrific situation in which he was the victim of a violent robbery in his house in the Catalan city.
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“My eldest son came running and said, 'Dad, there are some kids at home,'” Aubameyang said. “I said, 'Just hide.'
“They entered from outside, where my wife was smoking with my cousin and her boyfriend. They took him (the cousin's boyfriend) and entered the house. My wife was screaming. “They had a gun.”
The striker revealed that he “grabbed a big bottle” and went upstairs to try and confront the intruders.
“At the same time, my sister-in-law was there with our little one,” he continues. “I also told her: 'Go away.' Try to hide somewhere. That's when I saw the boys. I think there were four or five.
“One had the gun and told me: 'Get down.' I said, 'No, no, no.' Tell me what you want.' We talked and he said, 'Sit down.' I said, 'No.' That's when he started hitting me.”
He continued: “I wanted to fight, but a guy fell and took my children and my sister-in-law,” he says. “At that moment I couldn't do anything. If you do something wrong, something can happen to them. “We toured the house and I gave them what they wanted so that we would be well.”
Aubameyang had several belongings stolen, including jewelery and watches, but the biggest damage was done to his psychological state.
“If I was alone, there would be no problem,” insists Aubameyang. “I can handle it because I am mentally prepared for everything in life thanks to my parents. But when you have a wife and children, it's different.
“After that, the children told me: 'Dad, I don't want to go to school, I'm afraid something will happen there.' For a year my little one said, 'I can't sleep alone.' It was a great fight. You always have it in your mind.
“I still have that house, but I haven't been back since. I think I'll start renting it because my children don't want to go to Barcelona. His school organized a trip there and they said, “There's no chance I'm going.”
“I made a mistake by not talking to anyone. If I had had someone to talk to, a therapist or a psychologist, maybe it would have helped me. But I didn't want to do anything. To tell the truth, I was lost.”
His next step was an unlikely move to Chelsea, where he would reunite with his former coach at Borussia Dortmund. Thomas Tuchel.
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But things took a quick turn when the German was sacked a week after Aubameyang's arrival following a 1-0 Champions League defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, where he made his debut.
The striker revealed there was “no chance” of him leaving Barcelona for Chelsea if Tuchel had not been in charge of the west London club.
Speaking about Tuchel's state of mind during his final hours at Chelsea, he said: “We lost and he was pissed. Normally he would go crazy, but he came to the dressing room and then left. I thought, 'This is not the guy I know.' Very strange.' The next day they fired him.”
The situation worsened for Aubameyang after the arrival of Graham Potter which excluded him from Chelsea's Champions League squad, before the club sought force him out in early 2023.
“That's when I started saying, 'Okay, this is very disrespectful,'” he said. “They tried to send me on loan to the United States. I said, 'No chance.'
“I felt angry. From that moment on I said, “The season is over for me.” I just went to train to stay in shape; “I knew I wasn't going to play.”
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Aubameyang added that he has no hard feelings towards Chelsea, but claims that the club chose the wrong striker profile when targeting him.
He believes that a great striker like Didier Drogba It is what Chelsea were crying out for at that time and it did not fit the mold.
“I never had that connection,” Aubameyang said. “There is no connection. The fans wanted the Auba they saw at Arsenal. At that time I wasn't prepared for it and I didn't have the opportunity.
“I was not prepared either for what happened in Barcelona. “It was a chaotic year, but it was good for me because I needed a break and at the same time, they didn't want to play with me.”
