Oleksandr Zinchenko makes contradictory Mikel Arteta claim at the worst time for Arsenal

In what could go down as one of the most poorly-timed reveals, Oleksandr Zinchenko has opened up about his time on the Arsenal bench. He describes his manager, Mikel Arteta, as no longer believing in the player, and speaks of the sense of rejection having been left on the bench for much of the season.

Arsenal are in the process of trying to secure player sales as the window comes to a close, and the updated version of Zinchenko’s book ‘Believe’, in which he discusses topics like the club’s failure to win silverware and the Ukraine conflict, has been given early coverage by The Athletic. What has been shared does little to make the reader feel a sense of sympathy for him, and could theoretically impact the club’s capacity to maximise the fee from a potential sale.

He described the 2024/25 campaign as “In pure personal terms, it was easily the worst season I ever experienced as a professional”. While Zinchenko does write of the support he offered the man who would replace him, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and spoke of stories he’d heard of older players ‘ganging up’ on younger starlets in order to ‘defend their territory, ’ his words fail to gain sympathy.

Lewis-Skelly replaced a player in Zinchenko who, after falling out of regular starting contention, has seen errors become a worryingly frequent part of his game. Lewis-Skelly was simply a player who could be trusted to offer more on the ball and be less frail when out of possession. During the run-in of a season with a Champions League final up for grabs, it should have been clear why the 18-year-old was, therefore, getting minutes.

Thankfully, he does address the great privilege of earning a considerable sum of money every week, even if he does not play; not doing so would not have been smart. Yet, the inclusion still just reminds readers that this is a very privileged individual who has simply been outgrown at Arsenal by better players.

Writing that the manager no longer believes in him simply does not feel like the truth. As mentioned, he was eclipsed by a player who he himself writes in the book “came in and made the left-­back position his".

“He’s a special talent," he added. "Such a good player. What he’s done is unbelievable, really.”

Arteta put faith in a young player who consistently delivered top performances. It wasn’t even that Zinchenko was bad when he played—he wasn’t, despite his still obvious limitations and errors. He had a decent season from the minutes he got, but he simply was not providing as much as either Lewis-Skelly or, when fit, Riccardo Calafiori.

Unsurprisingly, the response to these excerpts has drawn a response from the online fan base. Sadly, much of it is rather unsavoury, and there is categorically no justification for the abusive posts and replies that have been posted to social media.

In theory, however, these excerpts are nothing positive from an Arsenal sales perspective. Any club that might have been interested in Zinchenko will see these and recognise the market opportunity that there is to try and get the best deal possible from the Gunners.

With just one year remaining on his Arsenal contract, the Gunners didn’t have a strong position to start with, but comments about his manager allegedly losing belief in him have arguably only weakened that further. The comments could have probably come at a better time, perhaps after the window closed, and to include notions that he isn’t the type to complain and instead claims that he blames himself, while in the same book stating that he feels his manager no longer believes in him, giving him a sense of rejection, when there are strong arguments, as highlighted, for why he is not getting the regular minutes he wants, just comes across contradictory.

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