'He didn't like': Rio Ferdinand says Arsenal defender private messaged him after criticism

The six-time Premier League winner stated that, last season, he was critical of Gabriel Magalhaes’s game, how he is the ‘most likely’ to make a mistake from Arsenal’s backline and how he also isn’t the best of players on the ball.

That resulted in the 25-year-old privately messaging Ferdinand, who stated that whilst he ‘respects’ the Arsenal star for directly talking to him, rather than using an agent, he feels that the players of today ‘can’t take criticism’, as he told Vibe with Five.

The irony of all of this is that, as of this moment, Gabriel has been benched by Mikel Arteta – Ian Wright has expressed his ‘worry’ at the situation.

Even though the Brazil star formed a strong partnership with William Saliba last season, he has now found that Ben White has taken his place at the heart of the defence.

Ferdinand touched upon the player being dropped and how his previous criticisms have now come to fruition.

Arsenal Training Session

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“I said that last year (Gabriel being the most likely to make a mistake),” said Ferdinand. “And he didn’t like it. He DM’d me. In the DM’s.

“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) come direct to me, which I respect that. But, at the same time, I don’t think he saw what I was saying for what it is.

“I am a centre-back and I am seeing certain traits in your game that you need to eradicate because your manager will see them and go ‘I don’t want them in my team’. It is kind of playing out now because he isn’t playing. It might be for the reason for what I said that ‘you can’t have a lack of concentration at times or he’s not as good on the ball as others’.”Will Gabriel return for the Manchester United clash?

Thomas Partey has been playing at right-back for Arsenal because he is the only fit player Arteta trusts to play that inverted role.

But Alex Zinchenko has now returned from injury, so if he starts at left-back against Man United on Sunday, then that might see Partey return to midfield, White back to right-back and Gabriel coming back into the XI.

Gabriel himself will be hoping that’s the case because he surely has to have already knocked on Arteta’s door asking him why he isn’t starting.