Are Fans Being Hypocritical Regarding Auba? By Dan Smith
Rumours of us selling Aubameyang have been described as nonsense by some fans in terms of ‘why would we even consider it?’ I read one comment which suggested Unai Emery should resign in protest if our top scorer was sold to Man United. Yet I feel some Gooners are missing vital information.
The Golden Boot Winner has 2 years left on his contract, meaning in 12 months’ time we will be back in the familiar situation of having to sell an asset for a cut price fee or risk losing him for nothing. You know, the same policy we have criticised our board for years for doing.
In an ideal world, the Gabon international extends his deal but it has reached the point when we have to ask what if he doesn’t? It’s getting very close to needing a contingency plan if his agent were to say he doesn’t want to discuss a new offer. Something we didn’t do for the likes of Ramsey.
If we are honest, why would any player rush to tie their future to North London? Why would you not keep your options open? We as fans notice the lack of ambition of Stan Kroenke so can hardly blame our players for doing the same.
If Auba knows his salary will be matched (or massively improved even) elsewhere, what he will then consider is; where is he most likely to win silverware? Compare the players that United are buying compared to us.
Yet our PR team might see it as a disaster to give a direct rival our star man. That same peer pressure saw us refuse to sell Sanchez to Man City even when he made it clear he wanted to leave. Many at the time thought it was worth turning our backs on 60 million, due to the damage he would do to our ‘title bid’. Only when we realised the Chilean would no longer try did we ask why we not took the money, something originally, we pressured the club not to do.
Whisper it quietly but many were relieved when we paid over the odds to keep Ozil. A section of our fan base won’t admit it, but we were scared we would lose the German so soon after losing Sanchez.
So, to clarify, fans are asking for Auba not to be sold now when we can get maximum value for him.
Yet when he leaves for free (like Ramsey) we will ask why we didn’t take the money (like Sanchez)! Even if we increased his pay, some would then question why pay someone in his thirties so much, (like Ozil).
The bigger question might be why can’t we be a club attractive enough so that we don’t always have to be scared of these situations?
But Gooners, if Auba said no to a new contract what would you want the club to do?
Dan Smith