Getting Auba To Go Abroad Should Be Our Priority by Dan Smith
It seems that Arsenal have resigned themselves to Aubameyang leaving in the summer (although after listening to recent comments from Van Persie, let’s not assume we have offered him a fair contract to turn down).
Whether he wants to move to a club with more ambition, or we don’t want to pay over the odds for someone in his 30’s (like we did with Ozil) the priority now has to be damage limitation. It will hurt us by losing our best striker but don’t compound it by making a Chelsea or Man United stronger.
To be a big club you have to act and think like a big club. Being a big club isn’t measured on always getting your own way but how you conduct yourselves.
Of course, we have had a lot of practise in losing our star names, but too often we let them become a saga. We pacify their egos by making them our captain, force them to stay, or worse let deals get so close to expiring that we are forced to sell to a top 4 rival.
After Ramsey left on a free, we were promised by our new team behind the scenes that never would a player be allowed to run down their contracts again. Gooners can’t blame Arsene Wenger this time. The fact is we have been lied to again, yet that seems to have escaped the attention of our fan base.
I remember writing last year when some were over-excited about Pepe (ignoring Emery had somehow weakened our defence) that the issue we needed to focus on was that our two forwards still hadn’t committed their futures.
Imagine the price you would have got for Auba 12 months ago? Now he holds all the cards. Let’s say his family insist they are happy in London. He can inform us he wants a move to Chelsea and if we refuse, he will be prepared to leave as a free agent in 2021. That’s what Sanchez did…
We thought the PR disaster of him going to Man City wasn’t worth taking 60 million. But by the following Christmas we had changed our stance because we were out of any title race, but also we assumed he was such a professional his levels wouldn’t drop.
This though isn’t a Nasri situation. English clubs can no longer give ridiculous wages which price the rest of Europe out of the market.
Any enquiries from a Juventus or Barcelona should be encouraged. Even if they offer less than a Chelsea, that’s worth it if it gets him out of this country. Him being in Serie A or La Liga should now be the priority. Don’t even negotiate with an English club unless the player won’t budge.
Ideally I would want to hear in the first week of the transfer window that Auba’s been sold abroad, giving us plenty of time to replace him and not make the mood around North London negative (like ripping off a plaster – just do it!).
Atletico Madrid are a good template to follow. In terms of any revenue you want to measure Arsenal world-wide are considered the bigger club. Yet that’s not how the Spaniards perceive themselves.
They don’t let themselves get bullied by the big two of their domestic game. Over the years when they lose a Torres, they get a Costa, when he goes then they bring in Griezmann, when they get a massive fee for him, they spend it on Felix. Whereas our recruitment team overthink and they will gamble on taking a Morata on loan.
Atletico are the favourites to get a Cavani for free. That’s the type of deal we should be looking at.
We will lose Auba. That’s doesn’t make us not a big club anymore. How we react to it will…
Dan Smith