I was not the problem in Aubameyang fallout: Mikel Arteta

LONDON: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta insisted that he was not the "problem" which caused Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's ouster from the club. He added that it was the club's decision to terminate the contract with Aubameyang.

"What I am saying is that I've been this solution, 100 per cent, I can look in the eye of anybody," he said on the eve of Arsenal's Premier League trip to Wolves.

Aubameyang left Arsenal last week after becoming the latest player to agree a contract termination with the club, allowing him to sign for the Catalan giants Barcelona on a free transfer.

"I think it was a problem just with him (Arteta). I can't really tell you much. He wasn't happy and that was it. I can't say anything else because that's what happened. I wasn't very happy and I'm better this way," Aubameyang had told the media during a press conference at Barcelona.

However, Arteta countered Aubameyang's claims. "You ask the question directly to me, so I respond. I am extremely grateful for what Auba has done at the club, for his contribution since I have been here and the way I see myself in that relationship is the solution, not the problem," he said.

"I do a lot of things wrong, for sure. But the intention all the time is the best – and not for me, it is for the club and for the team," he added.

Asked if the club were now past the point where they had to release players from their contracts, Arteta said, "Hopefully, but the turn-around of the squad, when we had that many things to do and we have already seen the amount of changes and the contractual situations that are very much attached to those players are really difficult to handle."

"If we want to thin the squad to have the capacity to evolve and improve it you have to make those decisions when you have the opportunity," he added. (IANS)

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