Bernd Leno opens up about talk of his Arsenal team-mates leaving the club
Bernd Leno says he and his Arsenal team-mates were not worried about talk of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka leaving
Bernd Leno has insisted that he was not worried about the speculation suggesting that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka could have been on their way out of Arsenal in the January transfer window.
Both players were linked with moves away from The Emirates in the winter transfer window but they ended up staying as Arsenal kept hold of all of their players last month.
The Gunners also moved to bring in two new defenders as they signed Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares on loan until the end of the season in the January window.
Arsenal have been getting used to life under new manager Mikel Arteta in recent weeks and Leno has insisted that he and his team-mates were not paying attention to the transfer speculation last month.
Speaking in an interview quoted by The Evening Standard, Leno said: “I think not too many players talked about this.
“Of course there are many rumours and other people talk about this, but you never had the feeling that any player was thinking about another club or wanted to leave or was refusing to train, or something like that, or they didn’t have the mentality in the training.
“Everybody can see we have a new manager and a new mentality. We want to build something here at Arsenal.
“Maybe it takes a little bit of time, but of course we also want to have good results straight away now.
“You can see on the pitch all these rumours [don’t affect] these players – they are fighting, they are leading the team and this is the only way.”
Arsenal will return to Premier League action when they take on Newcastle United at The Emirates after the winter break on Sunday 16 February.
The north London side have drawn their last four games in the Premier League to leave them off the pace in the race for Champions League qualification.
The Gunners are currently 10th in the table and 10 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea FC.
