Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang- It’s all a con by Dan Smith
News regarding Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this week has ranged from him wanting to move to Arsenal- even going as far as his agent apparently flying in to London to agree personal terms. Arsene Wenger hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to quash the rumours yet Dortmund on Friday insist they have had no contact with us. I obviously have no experience in dealing with transfers worth million of pounds but from the outside it seems quite simple.
Having made a profit in the summer we have continued to make money this month by selling more squad players. That means there is cash to spend, from a PR perspective pressure to make a marquee signing, and clearly Aubameyang and Dortmund have a uncertain relationship.
So is it not as straightforward as asking the German club ‘is he for sale and what’s the valuation?’ Either agree and make an offer or say no and move on to a list of targets you must surely have lined up.
Bear in mind we would have known a couple of months ago the likelihood of Sanchez leaving in this window. In a world where it’s accepted that tapping up goes on, surely we knew way before January 1st who’s a realistic target or not?
So why does it seem so complicated?
Indeed our so called rival’s transfer policies seems to be that the moment they are linked to a player, the deal is completed the following day.
Are we that cautious that it takes us so long to conclude such deals? Or do we (a club that prides itself on doing things the right way) somehow manage to leak out our dealings.
Or is it option three? The theory that most of us fear, that the club are happy for us to believe we have ambitions to chase talent such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just to keep us onside?
Think about it. The board face a backlash with our best player going to Manchester United. It suits them for fans to be distracted by the notion that we are replacing a world class player with another. Then on January 31st when such a deal (that never existed) falls through we are meant to reassure ourselves that at least we are only chasing the very best.
I of course would love to be proven wrong but this is like the same movie, we know the ending. How many times has the name Karim Benzema been thrown out there?
All the certainty that the papers have that we will get Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, do they not echo when we apparently had our eyes on Higuain ?
When Luis Suarez was doing everything he could to make us buy him, we suddenly went out of our way to offend Liverpool instead of an offer they couldn’t refuse.
We spent all summer trying to buy Lemar then conveniently ran out of time by the time we finally acted.
What hurts the most is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a signing as fans we should expect. It’s what other big clubs would do. It wouldn’t even burn a hole in our owners pockets given the recent outgoings.
In the short term Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan would keep fans happy and prove there is ambition at our club, more than just making money. It’s the type of signings we as fans deserve and demand. Yet with this board, I will believe it when I see it.
Dan