The strained relationship between Arsenal goalkeepers Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia took another twist after the latter revealed that he 'is hated' by his teammate. The 38-year-old Lehmann has frequently criticized Almunia without specific reasons, despite the Spaniard's silence. However, Almunia seems to be fed up with the German, who lately expressed his dismay for 'sitting on the bench behind somebody who only started to play when he was 30'. "I'm an easy-going person, I like to treat everyone with respect and I see everyone as equals. I treat people the way I would like to be treated myself," Almunia told the Guardian. "To have someone here who hates me is just amazing. I know he hates me. "Every morning I wake up I know it is going to be the same. I've had to put up with it every day since he was out of the team and even before then. I wake up and I know what it is going to be like. "But I don't care about him anymore. He can say what he likes. I come into training and I work with Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone. They are better goalkeepers than him anyway." Don't Care Almunia said that he has become used to Lehmann's mocking, as he cannot figure out the motives behind the veteran goalie's disrespect. "It's his problem, not mine, and I don't see why I should try to talk to him about it. The truth is I don't want to talk to him," he added. "I came into training this morning and one of the press officers told me he had been saying bad things about me in the newspapers again. It didn't surprise me. "The truth is I have got used to reading these things from him. If he was someone important to me, I would try to talk to him and see what the problem is. But he's not. So we don't talk. "I've never been in a situation like this before in my career. Normally we goalkeepers have so much respect for each other. "Why he doesn't respect me, I don't know. But I don't want any relationship with him. I try not to let what he says enter my mind because it's not important to me what he says or what he thinks." Lehmann's outbursts started to pop-up as soon as he lost his first-team to Almunia early this season, following the German's poor start.
