Ray Parlour was asked three burning questions every Arsenal fan wants answered on talkSPORT and, for once, the Gunners legend didn’t sit on the fence!
The ‘Romford Pele’ was called out by a Gooner on Friday’s Sports Breakfast, who urged the former midfielder to have his say on the three biggest talking points at the Emirates Stadium: Unai Emery, Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil.
Is the manager walking a tightrope in charge? Will the Swiss midfielder be stripped of the captaincy after telling supporters to ‘f**k off’? Will the out-of-favour German still be at the club after the January transfer window?
Well, as you asked so nicely, Parlour was more than happy to oblige. Check out what he had to say…
“He won’t be fired yet, they’ve still got every chance of the top four.
“Should he be fired? Why? They’re in fifth place. I know they got knocked out of the Carabao Cup, but they had a weakened team.
“Should he be fired? Not at the moment, no.”
“The problem I’ve got with Xhaka being captain is who picked him. The players can’t pick the captain, it should be the manager.
“I wouldn’t have him captain, but there are not a lot of other players who can.
“[Hector] Bellerin was captain against Liverpool and he’s a candidate. He’s been at the club a long time and is sort of a leader at the back. But Xhaka? I don’t agree with the players picking him, no.”
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“Ozil is going nowhere. He won’t be sold in January, no chance of that.
“Should he be sold? Yes. If you’re not going to play him on a regular basis, you might as well get rid of him.”
Ray also sent a message to Xhaka after he finally apologised to Arsenal fans on Wednesday.
In a statement issued on Arsenal’s Twitter page, Xhaka explained that he had reached ‘boiling point’ due to vile abuse that has been aimed at his wife and daughter over the last few months, apologising for ‘disrespecting the group of fans that support our club, our team and myself with positive energy’.
Parlour claims the midfielder ‘hasn’t got a strong mind’ and should keep a low profile online from now on to instead focus on improving his game.
“If you haven’t got a strong mind… I would say to him don’t be on social media,” he added on Friday’s Sports Breakfast.
“You know when you’ve had a poor game, you don’t need people to tell you.
“Social media a platform for them to build their profile, and the messages they get are not all bad, but if your character is not as strong as some of the other players, reading abuse on social media can really affect you.
“As a manager I would say to him, don’t be on social media, think about your game, don’t react to anybody and just concentrate on working hard and playing better.
“That’s what Xhaka has got to do now.”
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT as we bring you THREE live Premier League commentaries across our network, including Bournemouth vs Man United at 12:30pm and Arsenal vs Wolves at 3pm!