Arsenal should forget about making £80 million from the sale of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang next summer states Nigel Winterburn.
The Gabonese attacker will have one season left on his Arsenal contract at the end of this season and if he doesn’t agree on new terms with the Gunners, he would be able to walk away from the club in 2021.
Aubameyang has been linked with moves away from the Emirates since last summer and now that his current deal is coming to an end, European teams are taking notice.
Arsenal wants to tie him to a new deal, but he isn’t interested at the moments and he wants to see where the team finish their season.
Winterburn says he hopes that the former Borussia Dortmund man remains at the Emirates at the end of this season, however, he admits that there is little the club can do apart from sit and wait and see how the situation unfolds.
He, however, said that it wouldn’t make sense if Arsenal allowed him to leave them for free just like Aaron Ramsey.
“I hope Aubameyang will be an Arsenal player next season but they have a decision to make,” Winterburn said per goal.com.
“Arsenal have never been a big spending club. His contract’s up next season and they’re not going to let someone run down their contract again, although they’ve got little opportunity if he wants to do that.
“If the indication is that he’s not going to sign, they may have to take the opportunity and say ‘right, we’re going to take £40 million or whatever’. I don’t think they’re going to get 70 or 80 that they’re talking about with a year left for a player that’s coming to 31 years of age.
“For me, it’s more important whether the player wants to stay, who comes calling in the summer, and do Arsenal take the risk or can they convince him to sign a new contract? At the moment, it’s so difficult to call.”
We can’t sell for 40m. It might be a good economic sense but I will play him till he runs down the contract unless someone like Martinelli can take up the responsibility (this is too early). We need good players next season.