Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been one of the most talked-about footballers in the transfer market. He is unarguably the most consistent and valuable player currently in Arsenal football club. Yet, his future at the club is not certain.
Aubameyang‘s contract with Arsenal football club will expire in June 2021. According to reports, Arsenal has not started discussing his contract extension yet. But the Gabonese striker has shown a sign that he will not mind leaving a club he currently captains to a club he can enjoy Champions League football.
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has said repeatedly that his aim is to keep the 30-year-old striker who will turn 31 few days time. Yet, the club is already shopping for strikers that will replace a player that has been the club’s top scorer for two seasons with no title and no Champions League qualification to show for it. Since he joined the club from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in 2018, he has scored 61 goals and made 13 assists in 97 appearances.
Amid all the back and forth between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Arsenal, former Liverpool player and Sky Sports’ pundit Jamie Carragher believes that the joint-top scorer of the Premier League in the 2018-2019 season is “too good for Arsenal”.
Carragher urged the Gunners to sell the club captain now that he is being wanted by some of the best clubs in Europe including Real Madrid and Chelsea, or risk losing him to another club on a free transfer in 2021.
He said: “Towards the end of my career, [Liverpool] was in this situation quite a lot where you’re just missing out on the top four.
“It’s okay saying we have rules in place and saying we never let players go on a Bosman ruling, but if you’re Mikel Arteta I would be looking at it and thinking: have we got more of a chance – even if he goes for nothing next year – of getting to the Champions League before next season if Aubameyang stays?
“That’s the decision they’ve got to make. At this stage, there’s no doubt about it: Aubameyang is too good for Arsenal. We had that at Liverpool at times with Luis Suarez and certain players you’re desperate to keep hold of.
“You’re thinking as a club that you want to build around this player and if that player goes, you almost feel like you’re starting again. That’s the problem you have when you’re trying to get back into the top four and establish yourself as Arsenal are trying to do.
“That’ll be a decision for them. It’s okay saying, ‘if he doesn’t want to be there then let him go’, but it’s not easy when you’re at a club and have a player with such star quality who is probably nailed on every season to be there or thereabouts for the Golden Boot.
“It’s not easy to find goalscorers. I’d keep him – he gives Arsenal a greater chance of getting into the top four.”
Arsenal is 4 points away from the Champions League spot with 40 points. It will take extraordinary circumstances for the club to make it into the top 4 when the season restarts on June 17 with just 9 games remaining. If Champions League football is what Aubameyang wants, then, he is as good as done with Arsenal because there might not be any Europa competition for the club next season.
