Former Crystal Palace chief, Simon Jordan, has become the latest individual to discuss the ongoing contract saga between Arsenal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The club captain is currently negotiating with the club over a new deal as he enters the final year of his contract.
His impressive goalscoring record since he joined Arsenal has left no doubt that the smart thing to do is to tie him down to a new deal.
The Gunners are keen to get him on a new contract but his demands might be too much for a player who is going to be entering the twilight of his career soon.
Jordan has recognized the risk involved in giving a new deal to a player that you cannot sell in the future and he made a suggestion that could help the Gunners.
He claimed that if he was in Arsenal’s position at the moment, he would give the striker a highly incentivized deal that would see him get paid for reaching certain performance milestones.
He told Talk Sport: “If the market pays players like this player with his ability £250,000 a week, whether that’s right or wrong is irrelevant, that’s what you’ve got to pay somebody if you want to retain their services.
“The only challenge for Arsenal is that he would have no economic resale value [if he signed a new deal]. They can’t sell him for anything.
“If he signs another two or three-year contract, they won’t be signing a player to not only achieve things in the short-term but also make some money off when they come to sell him further down the line, they’d be simply be saying ‘we pay money now to get some short-term success, because that’s what Mikel Arteta needs’.
“I would do something footballers don’t like to do, which is make the offer performance-related.
“I would be saying to Aubameyang: ‘You want £250,000 a week? I tell you want, I’ll give you £300,000 a week if you score X amount of goals’.
“’Let’s make this about you, let’s make it about your achievement, let’s make it about your individual return’.
“But players often want guarantees, and THEN the bonuses on top. It’s about finding the middle ground.”
