23 January 2024 , 08:28
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Rio Ferdinand has hammered Mikel Arteta after the Arsenal boss engaged with Salt Bae during their winter break training camp.
The Gunners jetted off to Dubai recently as they were put through a series of midseason sessions under the sun. They've since returned and stuck five past Crystal Palace to put talk of their bad form behind them, but a video on social media featuring Arteta has not gone down well.
Whilst in Dubai those from north London took the opportunity to dine at the Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Abu Dhabi. It has become famous thanks to the Turkish chef, who was involved in a video that saw him dangle a piece of steak in Arteta's mouth.
Ferdinand maintained that no one leading Manchester United, nor Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, would involve themselves in such an episode.
He said on Vibe With Five : "He [Salt Bae] was feeding some of the guests at my wedding like that. If I’m paying for that he ain’t feeding me nothing, not having it, but he was going around some of the guests doing that. A Man United manager ain’t doing that, only an Arsenal manager would do that type of stupidness. Pep [Guardiola] ain’t doing that."
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Salt Bae has been able to involve himself in the footballing landscape. The chef - real name Nusret Gokce - became friendly with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and was allowed on the pitch after the World Cup final in Qatar. He later posed for photos with the player and even got his hands on the trophy.
Mikel Arteta visited Salt Bae's restaurant in Dubai
Rio Ferdinand was not impressed by his anticsArteta said on Arsenal's trip to Dubai: "It was great, it was a phenomenal camp in every sense. We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged."
He also added: "I think it gave us an opportunity to look at things with a bit of perspective and analyse what we've been doing, and I will take a lot of positives from the first six months of the competition. Even though results haven’t gone our way in the last few games, when you look at what we have produced in terms of the Premier League and any other team, we are up there."