Martin Keown believes Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will not commit to a new contract at Arsenal – and feels he should be stripped of the captaincy as a result.
The Gabon frontman’s future at the Emirates Stadium is a source for much discussion, with the 30-year-old’s contract set to run out next summer.
No discussions have yet taken place over a possible extension, and fears are growing that the Gunners could end up losing their talismanic striker for nothing.
And, despite drawing comparisons to an Arsenal legend, Keown doesn’t believe Aubameyang will extend his stay in North London.
“I don’t think he will. I think he’ll leave with a heavy heart,” former Gunners defender Keown told talkSPORT.
“I think he’s the nearest thing I have seen to Thierry Henry at the football club and the club will have to make swift decisions. They can’t allow what happened a few years ago with the transfers just going on and on. The club needs direction.”
Keown added: “It's a real concern for Arsenal, recently with [Mesut] Ozil, they lost [Aaron] Ramsey, they lost [Alexis] Sanchez.
“We're hearing now that, unlike [Unai] Emery who wasn't involved apparently in the Ramsey situation, him leaving, he's [Arteta] getting involved.
“I think the message needs to be to the player 'look, we can't have you captaining the club if there's uncertainty around your contract', in the last year of his contract, that can't be allowed to happen.
“Whether you keep him, whether you don't, that all depends on the monetary side.
“What are they going to get? What are the offers? Because they do need to look at it and what it means to them to break into the Champions League, to maybe challenge for a Premier League.
“So if they're only going to get an offer of £20m-£30m then you have to consider whether you're going to keep him there or not and whether the player has got the mental capacity to stay, but he can't be captain because the message is the wrong one to the rest of the group.
“So there's lots of building for Arteta to do.”
