Well we all now know for sure that Arsene Wenger had no input at all to the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang by Arsenal last January as it has now been revealed that the Board had already told the Frenchman that his 22 year tenure as Arsenal boss was over.
This bombshell was dropped by Jack Wilshere, who was extremely kee to sign the new contract extension in January until he was told that Wenger would be leaving, and after that he decided to wait to find out who the new boss would be. If you remember back in March when Wilshere was asked why he hadn’t re-signed, the Englishman said: “Things have changed since then,”
“All I can tell you is that we are no closer to sorting anything out.”
And now we know the full story of “how things had changed” as Wilshere has come clean about why he left Arsenal to join West Ham. “I was in the last year of my contract, and I spoke with the manager at the time, Arsene Wenger,” Wilshere revealed. “And he said that they won’t be offering me a new deal and that I could leave.
“But at the time I was injured and it was difficult, because I wasn’t fit and I wasn’t playing, and not many teams wanted me injured.
“So I decided to stay and I got back into the team and they finally offered me a deal in January which was ready to sign, and then Arsene got sacked.
“It was strange, everyone was just shocked and Per Mertesacker, the captain, said a few words, and I think everyone was just in shock.
“It was strange. No-one really saw it coming, but it changed everything, and I wanted to wait to speak to the new manager.
“And I did, and he was brilliant, he was honest with me.
“He said you can stay, but you won’t be in my starting XI, so I thought it was the right time to finally leave.”
I must say the team and the club did really well to keep it under wraps until Wenger was allowed to announce it himself before the Europa League semi-final against Atletico, but I guess that could also explain why the players showed no motivation during the second half of the season, and lost every single away game until the last day.
You have to be impressed with the cloak of secrecy though…
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