Looking through Arsenal news today a headline jumped out at me claiming “Arsenal preparing HUGE new contract offers for two key players” Those capitals for the word huge was part of the headline for the record.
Obviously, I read through the article and it was clear that the two key players were Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Reading further into the article it said this
Both could be in line for substantial pay increases if they put pen to paper with the Gunners again, with an offer of over £200,000-a-week reportedly possible for each man.
OK, I will start off saying they do use the word over but it cannot be much more otherwise they would have said over £220,000 or £250,000 etc and so to my thinking we are not talking much more than that figure.
The thing is that the Chinese clubs are reportedly offering £300,000 per week to Aubameyang, that is a cool £5 Million a year more or £15 Million over three years and no matter how rich these players are that is the sort of money that one finds very difficult to turn down, especially as you enter the twilight years of your career and you are looking to secure your financial future.
Even worse, £200,000 per week is only £20,000 per week more than what Arsenal are already paying Aubameyang according to some reports.
For some players it is not the amount of money that is always important but feeling devalued does matter and if the best that Arsenal can do is to offer our Golden Boot winner an extra £20k per week to keep him at the club then that tells me they are not serious about keeping hold of him.
And you have to remember that they all know what Mesut Ozil earns and to be told that you are worth a cool £150k per week less does take some accepting, I mean, Aaron Ramsey did not accept it did he?
Either we are serious about keeping Aubameyang or we are not, if we are then the club needs to offer him a much better deal than he is on right now, one that shows him how much he is truly valued or we just sell him but to make a token offer is just bad business whatever way you look at it.
I smell another huge mistake coming.