Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to become a Barcelona player, but they are unable to announce his signing from Arsenal.
The Gabon international fell out with manager Mikel Arteta in December, before being dropped from the playing squad and stripped of the captaincy.
After seven weeks without a competitive outing, he is now believed to have agreed a deal to join Barcelona, but with the Spanish giants not believed to be paying any transfer fee, they have to wait for Arsenal to release him from his contract before they can sign him.
There isn’t expected to be any issues in the deal, but the paperwork just appears to not have been completed as of yet, and Aubameyang has already enjoyed his first training session with his new club.
Football.Espanya adds that he cannot be announced until it is made official that Arsenal have released him on their end first, adding that they Spanish side will be keen to wrap this up quickly in hope of having him available to make his debut against Atletico Madrid this weekend.
I don’t expect Arsenal to fall through with their end of the bargain, as the saving on his wages will be quite sizeable, but I wouldn’t put it past us to string it out if they can.
Do you think Arsenal could renege on the deal?
Patrick