The former Aston Villa player feels it is time for the 32-year-old striker to consider dropping the armband after his latest disciplinary problems at Arsenal.
Former England international Gabby Agbonlahor has called on striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to consider giving up Arsenal captaincy.
After the game, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta cited a ‘disciplinary breach’ as the reason for the captain to miss out of the game and his absence came a few days after he had been benched in the 2-1 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park.
Agbonlahor, who played for Aston Villa in the Premier League managing 341 appearances and notched 76 goals, has suggested the former Borussia Dortmund striker should forfeit the captaincy due to a lack of professionalism off the pitch.
“I think Arteta’s handling him right,” Agbonlahor said on GameDay: Your Verdict, as quoted by talkSport.
“Arteta played at a great level, he played not that long ago, so he’s not going to accept any player thinking they can do what they like and have their own rules.
“When I played at Aston Villa I gave up the captaincy. I was club captain and I went on holiday during an international break and got caught smoking shisha.
“As footballers, we’re meant to be robots who aren’t allowed to do anything. I got a lot of heat for that so I gave up the armband.
“Maybe that’s something Aubameyang needs to do.
“I wasn’t professional enough for it. You can be a great captain on the pitch but if you’re not doing the right things off it then you can’t really be a captain off it. It was probably going to be taken off me anyway but I felt I wasn’t being professional enough off it.
“Because the club were so disappointed it felt like the right thing to do… in my later years I wasn’t professional on and off the field, I’ll hold my hands up for that.
“I don’t think he will give it up. He might think in his mind that he hasn’t done anything wrong.
“I’ve been there when you’ve sulked when you’re not playing loads of times.
“Maybe Aubameyang will look at himself and go ‘you know what, I don’t deserve to be captain of Arsenal.’ Someone else like a Kieran Tierney, or maybe a younger lad like Bukayo Saka could.”
