Arsenal icon Paul Merson has claimed that Mikel Arteta and Edu were right to allow Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave the club in the January transfer window.
Aubameyang was stripped of the club's captaincy following a disciplinary breach back in December of last year and was subsequently left out of every matchday squad before joining Barcelona during the winter window. Since then, the Gabon international has enjoyed some excellent form, notching ten goals and providing one assist in just 14 outings for Xavi's side.
Still, Merson has said that he thinks offloading the 32-year-old frontman was the right call, even though the Gunners have struggled for goals in recent times, scoring two goals across their last four Premier League fixtures. Writing his column for Sky Sports, he said: "We’re all clever after the event so there’s absolutely no point looking back.
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"La Liga isn’t a great league. Football is open and it’s free-flowing in Spain and he was a bad influence at the time at Arsenal.
"Arteta had to make a call whereby if he kept him there and he was having a negative impact on the other players, no one mentioned whether Aubameyang should still be there three or four weeks ago. All of a sudden, we’re hearing that Aubameyang shouldn’t have been sold.
"You’ve got to look at the future of the club and towards the younger players. They all respected Aubameyang and he was a bad influence at the time.
"The manager made the right call." Fellow strikers Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette appear likely to follow Aubameyang out the exit door at the Emirates Stadium this summer, with both frontmen into the final three months of their contracts at the club.
