Arsenal must resist overpaying Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as they did with Mesut Ozil.
Arsenal has been trying to tie Pierre Emerick Aubameyang down on a new deal but the attacker is refusing to commit to a long term deal.
This seems like Deja Vu remembering how Arsenal struggled to renew the deals of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
At the end that negotiation was a disaster with Arsenal ending up giving Ozil a huge deal and losing Sanchez to Manchester United.
Ozil looks to be back to some of his best but we can’t deny the fact that he is being overpaid and we have to look longterm if we want to offer a player such a deal again.
I know for certain that another player will one day earn more than Ozil at the Emirates and if that ends up being Aubameyang, I won’t be surprised.
However, we have to be prepared to always pay our best players better than the others if we start that with Aubameyang.
One of the reasons why we lost a top player like Aaron Ramsey is because we wouldn’t offer him more than we pay Ozil even though. to some, he was the better player.
I know that setting strict wage limits is somewhat counter-productive but there has to be some balance. Paying one individual so much more than the rest of the team has to be justified. I am not sure there are many that would say that about Ozil.
That is not a dig at Ozil, he got the club to pay him a ridiculous wage, it is hardly his fault the club made a mess of the negotiations.
But they have to avoid a repeat because the truth is, Aubameyang is not worth £350k a week at his age now.
If a player comes along that is definitely worth it then so be it, pay that sort of wage, Arsenal have to be competitive.
But there is a huge difference between being competitive and being foolish. It has happened once, it would be madness to repeat the same mistake.
In my opinion, the club should offer Aubameyang a decent pay rise but make it reasonable otherwise just sell him.