All or Nothing Arsenal: Inside Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang's exit with Cedric Soares and Martin Odegaard
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang's Arsenal exit is a key storyline running throughout the All or Nothing: Arsenal series on Amazon Prime Video.
The All or Nothing crew wouldn't have believed their luck when Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang was stripped of the Arsenal captaincy and exiled to Barcelona during the filming of their latest documentary series.
All or Nothing: Arsenal is the third edition of the franchise to follow a Premier League football club, after Manchester City and Tottenham, and one of the key threads in the series is bubbling tension around Aubameyang.
The Gabon international striker scored 92 goals in 168 games across all competitions for the Gunners and was a firm fan-favourite prior to his acrimonious departure during the 2021/22 campaign.
RadioTimes.com caught up with Cedric Soares and new Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard about the Amazon Prime Video series and their point of view on Aubameyang's dramatic exit, with Cedric describing the situation as one where boss Mikel Arteta's demanding routines and processes were at odds with Aubameyang, leading to conflict.
Remarkably, the Portuguese full-back is the oldest player in the Arsenal squad at age 30 – the only player born before 1992 – and spoke about his role in the dressing room as context to Aubameyang's departure.
He said: "We try to give the younger [players] a good image, of course, and we need to try to encourage them to do the right things and what, for us, worked. But in the end, every individual will grow and do their own path.
"About Auba, it was a situation that I was not quite involved in so I don't know the detailed details of it, but I was good with him.
"Obviously, the coach decided that maybe it was the best thing to do because, in his point of view, he didn't respect the group in a few moments.
"[Arteta] needs to be demanding, if he wants to be demanding on the pitch, he needs to be demanding also off the pitch in a lot of stuff. We know the ideas of the coach, we know how demanding he is, so in a group there needs to be rules and you need to live by them."
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Now, 23-year-old Odegaard has taken the armband at the Emirates and described it as "sad" and a "tough situation", but wants his team to focus on the future and move forward.
He said: "No one wanted this to happen. I think it was a tough situation for everyone. And it was not an ideal situation for the club or for the players – for Auba, of course, it was tough.
"I think it was just sad. It was hard. I think for Auba it was hard too, for the manager also, and for every one of us. It was just a difficult and tough situation, but in football you have to move on and you have to keep going and look forward. I think we did that in a good way. It was a sad situation but you have to deal with it and move on."
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Read more: All or Nothing Arsenal review: Fan TV goes to Hollywood
All or Nothing: Arsenal's first three episodes are streaming now on Amazon Prime Video, with the next three episodes arriving on Thursday 11th August – sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime Video.
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Authors
Michael Potts is the Sport Editor for Radio Times, covering all of the biggest sporting events across the globe with previews, features, interviews and more. He has worked for Radio Times since 2019 and previously worked on the sport desk at Express.co.uk after starting his career writing features for What Culture. He achieved a first-class degree in Sports Journalism in 2014.