There have been a few interesting redemption stories in this Arsenal team in recent years.
William Saliba, unbelievably, was once a bit of an outcast under Mikel Arteta, now he’s one of the best defenders in the world.
Meanwhile, Kai Havertz received a lot of stick when he first joined Arsenal, and now, he’s a star – and it was a similar story for Noni Madueke.
Gabriel Magalhaes was once a very misunderstood player, and speaking on Unfiltered Soccer, Tim Howard has been speaking about the defender and why he’s changed his mind on the Brazilian in recent times.
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Tim Howard has changed his opinion on Gabriel Magalhaes
Howard was discussing some of the stars headed to this summer’s World Cup, and he picked out Gabriel as one of the best defenders in the tournament.
Interestingly, the USA legend says he’s changed his mind on the Arsenal man.
Howard says he used to think Gabriel was a really rash and emotional defender, but now he thinks he’s simply incredible, noting that he has matured and become more of a leader.
“Gabriel for me is incredible. I actually used to think he was really rash and sort of like he was so emotional,” Howard said.
“Everything was like a big deal. every tackle, every pass out of the back, every header was like it was so much on it.
“He’s obviously settled into that a little bit more, again, that’s maturity and leadership.”
Rio Ferdinand’s initial assessment of Gabriel
Howard isn’t the only one who didn’t rate Gabriel when he first came to England.
Indeed, Rio Ferdinand wasn’t a fan of Gabriel when he initially signed for Arsenal, saying that he thought he was inconsistent and unreliable.”
“Just going back to Gabriel, when’s the last time Arsenal signed a centre back who they can rely on completely? He [Laurent Koscielny] was one, before that probably Sol [Campbell]? Kolo [Toure]?” Ferdinand said.
“It’s unbelievable, they’ve gone from having absolute rocks at the back to they can’t sign a good centre half for me. They’ve signed so many, Gabriel, there’s so many that come through who have the odd good game and then it just capitulates.
“I watched Gabriel on the first day of the season against Fulham and I thought he looks alright, he looks quite quick, aggressive, got a nice left foot, but then just folds, it doesn’t make sense. I can’t get my head around it. Is it the team that there’s just no protection or what?”
Nowadays, Gabriel is a superstar who you can rely on to come up with the goods every single week, and Mikel Arteta deserves plenty of credit for helping him improve.
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