Respected Spanish journalist Kike Marin recently claimed that Arsenal had lodged a €60m bid for Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but the Gabon international has unfortunately shot down any chance we had of signing him by confirming his desire to remain in Germany… for now (via The Sun).
Kike Marin was convinced we’d made a bid, announcing the potential transfer on Twitter.
Confirmado: @Arsenal ofrece €60 M al Borussia Dortmund por Aubameyang, primero en la Bota de Oro con 18 goles. pic.twitter.com/yjm85iR5jB
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) January 7, 2016
Aubameyang insists he won’t be leaving Dortmund any time soon however, essentially putting an end to any potential January transfer.
“I don’t want to go to Arsenal,” he said (via The Sun)
“I won’t leave Dortmund soon.”
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That’s a pretty damning statement, and really leaves the transfer dead in the water. Not only does the 26-year-old clearly have no intention of making a winter switch to north London, but we also don’t want a player at our club who doesn’t want to be here.
It’s certainly a bit of a blow, as Aubameyang would unquestionably add a real goalscoring threat. We’re badly in need of reinforcements in the striking department, but it appears as though we may need to look elsewhere.
At least we aren’t going to be facing another long, drawn-out transfer saga the way we have done in the past though, and this time we know early on there’s no chance of this one happening.
The majority of Arsenal fans obviously would have loved to see the Bundesliga’s top scorer join us this January, but there were question marks over the truth behind the rumours long before Aubameyang came out with these comments.
As The Sun reports, Aubameyang has also been linked with moves to Manchester City and Manchester United. Hopefully it’s a case of the player not wanting to move to the Premier League right now rather than being opposed to an Arsenal switch in particular, as if he were to join one of the Manchester clubs after these comments it would unquestionably be more than a little disappointing.
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There is clearly a shortage of top quality and available strikers out there at the moment, but hopefully Arsene Wenger has his eye on someone else. Despite the nature of the modern transfer market and the spotlight that is seemingly shone on every single player of note, the Frenchman still seems capable of pulling diamonds from the rough every once in a while.
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