‘He didn’t like it’: Rio Ferdinand says one Arsenal player messaged him privately over criticism last season

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Rio Ferdinand has shared how Gabriel Magalhaes reached out to him privately last season after the pundit had suggested that the Brazilian was the Arsenal defender most likely to make a mistake.

Ferdinand was speaking on his YouTube channel as there continues to plenty of debate surrounding the centre-back ahead of the final days of the transfer window.

It has baffled many that Gabriel Magalhaes has not started any of Arsenal’s opening three games. Instead, William Saliba and Ben White have started at centre-back for the Gunners.

Gabriel has previously been a stalwart of Mikel Arteta’s side. And it is fair to say that Arsenal have hardly flown out of the blocks at the beginning of this campaign.

Gabriel reached out to Ferdinand over criticism last season

It was put to Ferdinand that Gabriel may be out of the team because he is the Arsenal defender most likely to make an error. And it seems that that is a view that he would agree with.

However, Gabriel seemingly took exception with Ferdinand suggesting that he is the Arsenal defender with the greatest potential to make a mistake.

“I said that last year,” he told his YouTube channel. “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. But, at the same time, I don’t think he saw what I was saying.”

You can understand why Gabriel took exception with Ferdinand’s criticism. William Saliba received a raft of plaudits last season. And rightfully so. The Frenchman was exceptional following his emergence into the side.

However, Gabriel went nearly two years without missing a Premier League game. He was so important to the way Arsenal played and the progress that they made. If he was any sort of weak link, Mikel Arteta would have replaced him some time ago.

Obviously, reaching out to Ferdinand to discuss the criticism would have been fair enough. But to take it personally would probably make little sense.

Ultimately, Gabriel appears to remain an integral part of the plans at Arsenal – despite his recent run out of the starting lineup. So if he is doing everything Arteta wants from him, he should be taking little notice of what those on the outside might think.