A young Arsenal midfielder has departed the club - with the player's agent signing off with a parting broadside at critics.  

On Monday the North Londoners announced that 21-year-old Cirjan Catalin will be exiting the Gunners on a free this summer.

While Cirjan had a deal with Arsenal until 2025 the player and club opted for a clean break 12 months before that deadline - in a bid to help the highly-rated Romanian starlet find another club and boost his progress.  

Cirjan posted a dignified goodbye on Instagram, explaining: "I joined the club as a kid and I left like a man.

"I have the best memories but I went through some very tough situations like my injuries.

"I fell but I always came back better and stronger but I couldn’t do all of this without the help and support from all the staff and players.

"I was so lucky to be able to play and learn from some of the best players in the world and the best coaches.

"Now it’s time to move on and start a new chapter in my career."

However, Cirjan's agent Catalin Sarmasan slammed critics who have already written off the Gunners youngster.

“The news that Arsenal and Catalin Cirjan decided to go their separate ways, even though there is still a year of contract, has triggered a general hysteria among Romanians with black souls,” Sarmasan wrote on Facebook

“There was not so much joy even when the Gunners signed Catalin.

“‘Brothers, we won, Cirjan failed to replace Odegaard at Arsenal! Now we are happy, we were afraid he would succeed and he would show us how mediocre we are,’ thought the ‘deserving ones’.

“What the happiness of today did not take into account is that this boy of only 21 years old, on whose arm the armband of the U23 team of one of the most prestigious football academies in the world stood, fell and got up more times than they graduated a form of education that allows them to judge a child with total respect towards his work. And he will do it again, and again.

“Your story is not finished, Catalin! It has only just begun, and bad people were also needed, so you can appreciate the good ones more."

“Those of us who know you, know what you are capable of and we also know that a year less good does not mean a failed career or a lost life.”