Rio Ferdinand reveals Arsenal player DM'd him over criticism last season

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Gabriel Magalhaes took umbrage with comments he made about the Arsenal centre-back's performance last season.

Gabriel has been benched for the Gunners' opening three fixtures of the Premier League campaign amid rumours he could leave the club this summer.

The 25-year-old was a stalwart of Mikel Arteta's side last season and has played in 98 of 117 top flight matches since his arrival in 2020.

However, he has since been dropped from the starting XI and Ferdinand reckons it is because the Brazilian is most prone to making mistakes.

Gabriel seemingly took offence to the former England international's comments and allegedly took it up with Ferdinand on social media.

When asked if Gabriel's absence was due to his error-making, Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel: “I said that last year a and he didn’t like it, he DM’d me.

“This is a big thing, for me, with players today, they can’t take criticism. Players today, not all of them, I have had quite a few players who have come through their agents.

"I have said ‘don’t you get your agent to speak to me. You get your player to come and chat to me and I will chat to him, no problem’.

“Yes, he [Gabriel] came direct to me, which I respect. But, at the same time, I don’t think he saw what I was saying.”

Supporters may expect Gabriel to be reinstated into the Gunners' back four against Manchester United on Sunday, assuming he does not move away this summer, with Real Madrid and clubs in the Saudi Pro League reportedly interested in signing him.

Meanwhile, Arteta instead his absence was purely for tactical reasons.

After leaving Gabriel out of Arsenal’s first two matches of the season, the Spaniard told reporters last week: “It’s about the games we were expecting, that I was expecting, and how I wanted to defend and attack and what I believed was the best thing.

“He’s played in both games, he helped us to win both games for different reasons. He was really good today, he absolutely dominated the box when he came on and he’s going to play a lot of games. But that’s the decision sometimes.”