With all the controversy going around Granit Xhaka and whether he still is the man to wear the arm-band for Arsenal, there are some new revelations made by The Athletic.
The Switzerland international was reportedly frustrated over how long it took Unai Emery to name him the captain and the under-fire Spaniard making curious decision to put things to vote for the entire squad on who they wanted to replace Laurent Koscielny to wear the arm-band.
Xhaka was handed the band by his team-mates, however, his future as Arsenal’s skipper is rather doubtful after his clash with the Gunners faithful last weekend where Xhaka cupped his ear to the crowd and telling them to ‘f*** off’.
The Athletic claims Unai Emery was not entirely on board with idea of making Xhaka his captain and consulted another player about taking over as full time skipper before putting things to vote.
Granit felt he was the right man for the job and his frustrations with the manager grew as he delayed naming him the skipper. Unai was hesitant and perhaps rightly after what happened against Crystal Palace – yet its to be seen whether he will continue wearing the armband.
Xhaka after five days finally released a statement on Thursday night, writing: ‘After taking some time to reflect on what happened on Sunday afternoon, I would like to give you an explanation rather than just a quick response.
‘The scenes that took place around my substitution have moved me deeply. I love this club and always give 100% on and off the pitch. My feeling of not being understood by fans, and repeated abusive comments at matches and in social media over the last weeks and months have hurt me deeply.
‘People have said things like “We will break your legs”, “Kill your wife” and “Wish that your daughter gets cancer”.
‘That has stirred me up and I reached boiling point when I felt the rejection in the stadium on Sunday.
‘In this situation, I let myself be carried away and reacted in a way that disrespected the group of fans that support our club, our team and myself with positive energy.
‘That has not been my intention and I’m sorry if that’s what people thought.
‘My wish is that we get back to a place of mutual respect, remembering why we fell in love with this game in the first place. Let’s move forward positively together.’
Despite of Xhaka’s apology, Emery made it clear that Xhaka won’t feature for Arsenal when they host Wolves on Saturday.
“We need time to recover the normality in him and for us,” said Emery.
“He said sorry, he gave an apology to the supporters and now is time to focus on the match.”
