Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Arsenal star Gabriel Magalhaes sent him a DM after the Manchester United legend criticised him.
The Brazilian has been one of our most reliable players over the last three years, but he has harshly been criticised at times by a few pundits, including Ferdinand. Gabriel wasn’t happy with one of his comments last season.
Arsenal star Gabriel sent a DM to Rio Ferdinand after he criticised him
Gabriel Magalhaes has been one of Arsenal‘s best players since he joined us. Yes, the Brazilian has made mistakes at times, but he has saved us on numerous occasions as well, and people tend to forget that these days.
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William Saliba‘s emergence last season overshadowed Gabriel’s performances at times, and that’s when pundits tried to pick on him.
Ferdinand was one of them, and the Manchester United legend went as far as saying Gabriel is a player who has a mistake in him. He even claimed: “Gabriel is rash, he makes mad, wild decisions.”
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Gabriel apparently sent Ferdinand a DM after listening to his comments.
He said on FIVE: “I said that last year (Gabriel being the most likely to make a mistake). And he didn’t like it. He DM’d me. In the DM’s.
“This is a big thing, for me, with players today, they can’t take criticism. Players today, not all of them, I have had quite a few players who have come through their agents. I have said ‘don’t you get your agent to speak to me. You get your player to come and chat to me and I will chat to him, no problem’.
“Yes, he (Gabriel) come direct to me, which I respect that. But, at the same time, I don’t think he saw what I was saying for what it is.
“I am a centre-back and I am seeing certain traits in your game that you need to eradicate because your manager will see them and go ‘I don’t want them in my team’. It is kind of playing out now because he isn’t playing. It might be for the reason for what I said that ‘you can’t have a lack of concentration at times or he’s not as good on the ball as others’.”
The Insider’s View:
We really don’t think Gabriel did a lot wrong last season.
Yes, he did concede a couple of penalties and had a few disappointing moments, but a centre-back can’t be flawless throughout the season, can he? Even William Saliba made a few mistakes last season.
However, with Gabriel not starting a single game so far this campaign, an argument can be made that Arteta feels the same way about him.
That’s unlikely in our opinion, as we think the only reason Gabriel hasn’t started is because Alex Zinchenko hasn’t been available. That will change this Sunday when we take on Manchester United.