Arsenal team captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has only over a year contract with the Premier League club and he has turned down offers of extension deal, indicating that the Gunners could be forced to sell the striker for fear of losing him for free. Aware of this scenario, Paris Saint-Germain will reportedly make a bid and looking to make a cut-price deal.
Aubameyang was acquired from Borussia Dortmund in 2018 for £57 million and it proved a worthy investment for the Gunners. The Gabon international has so far played 97 games with the club and scored 61 goals. He is a prized player and according to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, he will do his best to keep the club skipper.
However, Aubameyang is heavily linked with a transfer to Barcelona, which likely is the reason he turned down proposals from the Emirates to stay for a few more years. With the word out that he plans to exit once his contract expires, PSG will be entering the picture, according to Mirror.
The French giants appeared to be fully appreciative of the situation. Arteta is hard-pressed to make a deal or Arsenal could see Aubameyang walking out and the club will get nothing. Then the financial pressures brought about by the coronavirus pandemic will make it hard for the Gunners to demand a high price for the striker.
It would seem Arteta will need to make a compromise on a deal that involves Aubameyang. Per the same report, the Parisians are ready to spend up to £44 million to bring the Arsenal man to the French capital.
But knowing that the circumstances favor them, the French giants are expected to push for a hefty discount and bring down the transfer fee to £35 million. Counting in the lessons of the past, such as letting Aaron Ramsey go for free, Arsenal will likely approve the offer from PSG.
Losing Aubameyang seemed a done deal for the Gunners, and according to former club hero Jeremie Aliadiere, it is investable that Arsenal will incur losses in selling the team captain. The best option, for now, is to minimize the loss and Aliadiere blamed "poor management" for such a predicament.
"They've got to sell him, 100 percent... Arsenal can't keep losing players on a free ... I still can't believe we've again got a top player, our captain, going into the summer only having one year left on his contract," Metro reported the ex-Arsenal star as saying.
Aliadiere said Aubameyang should have been given an extension earlier and if he rejected the offer, then it would be wise for Arsenal to sell the player. Now, he continued, the club is again staring at losses that could have been prevented.
