Damage control.
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From Ornstein
- The Athletic has learned the decision to remove the armband from Xhaka and then hand it to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has divided opinion inside the North London club.
- Although Xhaka’s popularity has always been mixed among Arsenal supporters, who seemed to take a particularly dim view of the 27-year-old Switzerland midfielder being appointed as permanent skipper in September, he was generally well-regarded by players and staff.
- Some within the set-up, therefore, believe Xhaka has been “thrown under the bus” internally following his actions as he was substituted during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace last month.
- Others, however, intimate that by storming away from the Emirates Stadium after that incident and declining to privately apologise to his colleagues, he has lost much of their respect.
- On November 2, it is understood he was involved in a heated exchange with a team-mate.
- Unlike Unai Emery’s original call to give Xhaka the captaincy, when the squad were polled as part of the process, on this occasion, they did not formally contribute and most of them found out Aubameyang was the new skipper via the head coach’s news conference ahead of last week’s Europa League tie away to Vitoria.
- There is a feeling this sentiment, rather than public pressure, played a key role in ending Xhaka’s tenure; the sense being that he could well have retained the armband if he had said sorry to his peers.
- The 30-year-old striker is said to have irritated some people by developing a relationship with AFTV, the YouTube channel that calls itself the “Unofficial Voice of Arsenal fans around the world”.
- Many at the club believe the growth of AFTV, formerly known as ArsenalFanTV, has contributed to an upsurge in negativity towards the team and specific players from sections of the support.
- Sources suggest Aubameyang was “so smart” to strike up a rapport with the channel and express a view that in “promoting” the content, he is effectively endorsing and encouraging more of it to be produced, and making himself immune to criticism even if his performance level drops.
- The Gabon international appearing to “like” a number of contentious AFTV posts on Instagram, including one in June criticising Emery and another in September calling for Xhaka to be sold in the next transfer window, is said to have left team-mates and staff unimpressed.
- Apparently, Aubameyang has also been asked to stop engaging with one of AFTV’s contributors, ‘Troopz’. It is claimed that complaints have been lodged about Aubameyang inviting the supporter to watch games from his executive box, which is situated in the same quadrant of the ground that houses the majority of other player boxes and is intended for use by family and friends.
- The club are understandably keen to extend his deal, but it is thought the player would prefer to see if his side qualify for next season’s Champions League before making a commitment.
Blaming AFTV 
What is this shit.
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It’s like they thought the original banter era wasn’t bantery enough so they’ve increased banter levels for TBE PART 2
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Banter Era v2.0
what new and improved?
Robbie will be grinning from ear to ear with this free publicity.
They’re handling all of this so comically bad, it’s sad as hell to see.
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It’s actually all fucking tragic. We were comical at times in recent years under Wenger, but for the first time in my life I’m embaressed to be an Arsenal fan. None of our heavy defeats compare to this laughable series of recent events.
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Bare in mind we have players actually thinking like this and you realise we are seriously fucked
I would’ve thought Aubameyang might be super popular in the squad and we could avoid the Sanchez issue of having a great player on our hands that nobody liked. Not great to read that he’s not the unanimous choice among the squad (if any more than twatter bs)
If Xhaka-gate starts causing player rifts as well as “us and them” rifts with the fanbase then we’re in something of a pickle
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The banter is pretty funny tbh. What a club 
We got the PR department blaming YouTube fan channels, our old captain telling the fans to fuck off, our new captain now baiting out our club media mouthpiece, and we got fans releasing diss tracks on our head coach :ozil:
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You can stick your 100 points up your arse. This is much more entertaining
The club are actually blaming a YouTube channel for the negativity towards us ?
How about blaming the fact we haven’t got over 80 points since 07/08 season ? Or the fact we haven’t made CL last 8 since 2010 ? Or the fact we’re now staring at 4 consecutive seasons of Europa League or even missing Europe all together?
I’m legit starting to have no words for this club anymore, what an absolute sad state of affairs.
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It’s as if the board want to do their best to take the heat off of the manager by acting like complete and utter twats and making themselves even more unlikable than he is at the moment.
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The board have got Wengeritis.
When something goes wrong, it’s never your fault.
Never admit your wrong and certainly never learn from your mistakes, especially when you can blame someone else.
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The reality when u really think about the situation, is very dire. Just think about the Dinosaurs up in the board room and the many many years of complacency that has rooted itself at the top level. A fish rots from the head down. That’s why it took so long for the club to make a change and come into the modern era of football with a football director, and head of recruitment.
Which leads me to believe that no matter who is brought in, we are going to continue to suffer. Imagine if we did make a refreshing hire like Nagelsmann. He’d probably encounter push back on pretty much all the ideas he’d have that would improve the club. The ppl at the top clearly don’t want to be inconvenienced with working hard, and changing up their routine, in order to get back to the top of the mountain. They want their money and power, and to do as little as possible to receive it.
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I’m sad Wenger just took the heat for a lot of it and didn’t try and sort it out
It says a lot about Wenger the man, but he didn’t have to take those bullets.
We could have realised how fucked things were under Dino-board but he took the brunt of it, and was seemingly a distraction tactic used by the board.
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Don’t panic everyone
Vinai has said they’re all working very hard behind the scenes
I can imagine him sweating so hard carrying the £20k plus he has to take home every week
And there is so much wine that has to be drunk in the directors box on match days to ensure you are blind drunk enough to not see the spectacle below
Keep up the hard work Vinai
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This is us trying to win a game
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at least she eventually got there…i dont see signs of us doing the same 
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