The Athletic

Hello, I'm Mark Chapman, welcome to the Athletic Football podcast.

Adam Crafton and David Owenstein are with us to discuss the biggest transfer

deals at the window as Premier League clubs completed the second highest spend in January

in history, around £295 million spent. And on top of all of that, Everton announced

Frank Lampard as their new manager as well. So we'll discuss that and also some of the moves that Everton

have made. We've had plenty of windows between us all where we've been scraping the barrel,

but there is a lot to talk about this time. So let's get stuck in straight away. Let's start David

with Pierre Emrico Bamayang leaving Arsenal and going to Barcelona.

What are the details?

It brought to an end, a pretty sorry episode that began in, what, early December,

when he returned late from a club-sanctioned trip to France to collect his unwell mother. It was actually just after Mikhail Artetta had

banned foreign travel for the squad amid the pandemic and so special permission was given.

And Arsenal, when they stripped him of the captaincy, said this was his latest disciplinary breach.

So clearly the bridge between Artetta and a Bamyang was burned because of what Arsenal

deemed to be a repeat offender. He was made to train on his own, very publicly shamed,

it's fair to say. And I'm told by people around this situation that from that moment on,

when he was stripped of the captaincy, there was no way back. And he never did return to the

first team set up on even a training basis. He left the Africa Cup of Nations early. Gabon said

that was because of heart lesions.

Arsenal never confirmed or I think received official reasons why.

Tests are said to have been clear and that opened the way for a departure.

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