Martin Keown says Mikel Arteta should strip Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of the Arsenal captaincy if he does not sign a new contract with the club in the near future.
Aubameyang has just over one year left on his existing deal, however it is unclear whether he intends to sign an extension or look for a move away from North London.
It has been suggested that the 30-year-old is considering leaving the Emirates in order to join a club who can offer Champions League football, with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG said to be interested.
However, the Gunners are keen to see the Gabon international stay and while reports that they had offered him a new deal appear to be wide of the mark, it is thought that Mikel Arteta will try and convince the former Borussia Dortmund star to commit his future to the club when he holds talks with him over the coming weeks and months.
The situation has been the main talking point coming out of Arsenal for some time now, and club legend Martin Keown believes Aubameyang should have the captains armband taken off him as long as there is uncertainty over his future, just as Southampton plan to do with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Keown said: “It’s a real concern for Arsenal, recently with [Mesut] Ozil, they lost [Aaron] Ramsey, they lost [Alexis] Sanchez.
“First of all I like the core beliefs of [Ralph] Hasenhuttl, you can hear what he’s saying about Hojbjerg and I think that’s where it needs to come from Arteta.
“We’re hearing now that, unlike [Unai] Emery who wasn’t involved apparently in the Ramsey situation, him leaving, he’s getting involved.
“I think the message needs to be to the player ‘look, we can’t have you captaining the club if there’s uncertainty around your contract’, in the last year of his contract, that can’t be allowed to happen.
“Whether you keep him, whether you don’t, that all depends on the monetary side.
“What are they going to get? What are the offers? Because they do need to look at it and what it means to them to break into the Champions League, to maybe challenge for a Premier League.”
Keown wary of Aubameyang fee
Aubameyang was named captain in November last year, replacing Granit Xhaka who was stripped of the duty after an encounter with Arsenal fans during the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.
His time as captain has been largely unsuccessful so far though, with the Gunners winning just five of 18 Premier League games with the forward as skipper.
And if they don’t sell him in the summer and if Aubameyang doesn’t sign a new deal, Keown is wary of what that’ll mean for Arsenal.
“So if they’re only going to get an offer of £20m-£30m then you have to consider whether you’re going to keep him there or not and whether the player has got the mental capacity to stay, but he can’t be captain because the message is the wrong one to the rest of the group.
“So there’s lots of building for Arteta to do.”
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