After leaving Arsenal, the goalkeeper has spoken out against the team, saying that decisions were made based on “politics.”
Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, said he was “surprised” by Bernd Leno’s comments, in which he made fun of the club. The 30-year-old said that “politics” were a part of the Gunners’ culture and that they were to blame for the decisions that forced him to leave.
The Germany international left the Emirates this summer after four years there. He joined the team in 2018 from Bayer Leverkusen. Leno took Petr Cech’s place as the regular first-team goalkeeper at Arsenal after Cech’s performance dropped and he quit the sport.
The goalie went on to make 125 appearances for the Gunners, during which time he kept 37 clean sheets and let in 145 goals. The German took over as goalkeeper when the club was going through a tough time. After Arsene Wenger left, the team’s results and form went down.
He had the job for three years before Aaron Ramsdale, who came from Sheffield United to the club last summer, beat him out. It didn’t take long for the new goalkeeper to show that he should be in the first team. He did this early in his Arsenal career to get rid of Leno.
With not enough playing time and the World Cup coming up, the goalkeeper decided to move to Fulham for £8million in the summer. But, according to Sportbuzzer, in a recent interview with SportBILD. “During the preparation, I realized that it has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with politics. I knew I had to leave: it was obvious.”
Arsenal manager Mike Arteta seemed surprised by the comments, saying before his team’s game against FC Zurich: “I’m really surprised, and I don’t know if he’s talking about politics when he was playing or when he wasn’t. I was really shocked by it.”
We don’t yet know if Leno will explain what he meant by those comments, but if he doesn’t, it may not change much at the club.
