Arsenal is looking to keep hold of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the Emirates beyond this season.
The club captain is negotiating with the club over extending his current stay beyond the end of next season.
Negotiations have proven tough for the club to pull off and there is a good chance that the Gunners might fail to get him on a new deal.
If that becomes the case, the club will look to cash in on him and bring in a replacement for their top scorer.
Replacing a player that has scored the number of goals that Aubameyang has scored since he joined Arsenal won’t be easy, but pundit Tim Sherwood thinks that there is a player in the current Arsenal side who could eventually replace the striker.
He reckoned that if Arsenal can keep hold of Gabriel Martinelli, the Brazilian can replace Aubameyang.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to the training ground at Arsenal and what’s big on his [Arteta’s] priority list is to improve the players,” Sherwood said as quoted by the Express.
“No matter who they are even if they’re ready-made international footballers it’s to make them better and what he’s not afraid to do is look into their academy.
“They’ve got a lot of good young players there. Bukayo Saka is the one that’s come to the front and Gabriel Martinelli will eventually take over from Aubameyang, if they can’t keep hold of him.
“Ainsley Maintland-Niles [too]. There’s no end of good young players. They’re very versatile in their positions and Mikel wants to work on a system that everyone is happy with.
“He’s not going in there and saying: “This is how I play. He’s saying: ‘What do I have at my disposal?”
“He wants to try and get the best out of the squad he has, I like what he’s doing there, I think they’ve got a clear plan. They haven’t got the money.
“Nicolas Pepe was big money and he’s the last of the big signings you’ll see at Arsenal.
“They’ll have to cut their cloth differently now and I think they’ll dip into their academy.
“I think it’ll take time but I think they’ll get what they want to achieve under Mikel Arteta.”
When(not if) Auba leaves, there are two possibilities. Either Martinelli steps in his shoe or we sign replacement. If Martinelli eventually hits Auba form, big clubs will come for him and we’ll lose him too and the cycle continues. The only solution is a statement of ambition from the owner that we are not a selling club. And he can do that by ensuring we have a world class player in every single position. Our team B should be able to make top 4. We should be raiding other clubs for their top players not the other way round.
I’m so glad i stopped watching our matches lately. If I’m not being paid for supporting this club, i should at least enjoy the fact that I’m a fan. I’ll be back next 2 weeks to check the result of Man city game
Sell auba & laca to fund partey & upamecano, free ozil and sokratis to take-in coutinho either on loan with option to buy, give martinelli and nketiah chance to shine. good centre back, defensive midfield, & attacking midfield can produce good attacking shape & GABI is equal to the task