Arsenal haven’t had the best of luck when it comes to maintaining a harmonious dressing room in recent years.
Mesut Ozil was completely ostracised last year, Matteo Guendouzi famously fell out with Mikel Arteta after his conduct against Brighton, Granit Xhaka was stripped of the captaincy after a spat with certain fans, and most recently, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was released after a disciplinary matter.
However, for the first time in years, the dressing room at Arsenal seems to be settled and everyone appears to be pulling in the same direction.
The Gunners seem to finally have gotten rid of any problematic players, and the squad seems united under Arteta.
This is partially down to the London club’s summer recruitment. Every player that was signed in seems to have immediately settled, and from the outside looking in, the likes of Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu all seem to be model teammates.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of another of Arsenal’s summer transfer targets – Ilaix Moriba.
The young midfielder seemed to have the world at his feet when he burst onto the scene at Barcelona a couple of years ago, his talents on the pitch were absolutely dazzling, but behind the scenes, issues quickly started to mount up.
He left Barcelona due to the fact he wanted a hefty payrise, and while footballers are entitled to be paid fairly relative to their talents, asking a club on the brink of bankruptcy for €100,000-a-week when you’re only an 18-year-old prodigy isn’t a good look.
Of course, contract issues aren’t always a sign of a bad attitude or a big ego, but unfortunately, those initial suspicions of Moriba being a bit of a prima donna have since been confirmed.
Moriba signed for RB Leipzig in the summer, but before long he was back in Spain on loan with Valencia, and it’s now being reported that Leipzig don’t want him back.
The midfielder’s attitude problems grew to be too much for Domenico Tedesco, with one incident being reported where Moriba asked his physio to bring him grapes while he was getting a sports massage – a disrespectful act to say the least.
If Moriba’s attitude is too much for Tedesco, then it’s fair to assume that it would have been too much for Arteta. After all, the Spaniard cut all ties with his highest-paid player and club captain this season due to his off-field antics, so putting a teenager in his place wouldn’t have been an issue.
Moriba hasn’t lasted a year in Leipzig before being shipped out, and it’s fair to assume that similar would have happened at Arsenal if he’d made the move that was touted in the summer.
Luckily though, the Gunners didn’t sign Moriba, and another situation similar to Aubameyang’s has been avoided.
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