In his programme notes ahead of last night’s 1-0 win over Leeds United, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hit out at the flurry of stories which suggested he was desperate to leave Arsenal during the January window.
The captain has less than 18 months left on his deal, which obviously adds to speculation, but gave the idea of a departure this month short shrift.
“People like making up stories and they should focus on what’s happening on the pitch,” he wrote.
“They talk too much and it does my head in! I am the Arsenal captain. I love this club.
“I am committed to it and desperate to bring it back to the top, where it belongs.”
The message was a welcome one to fans, and also to new boss Mikel Arteta, who has plenty on his plate in the early stages of his new job.
“I was thrilled about that and really happy,” he said.
“His commitment since the day I walked through that door has been phenomenal, the work he has been putting in, his attitude around the place with the players.
“I want him here and I am so happy with him, so hopefully that is the end of the story.”
Newspapers and gossip being what they are, it probably won’t be, and there’s obviously a big decision looming in the summer, but that statement means his future is something we can consider at the end of a season in which there are still two trophies to play for.
I hope I’m wrong but this has shades of all parties trying almost too hard to dispel the rumours.
Securing Auba along with Champions League status again would obviously be the preferred outcome as he’s been our most prolific striker for some time. But the old cynic in me is reserving any hope until after this and the next transfer window.
Why would Auba want to dispel the rumours if he was looking to leave this month? The opposite is the standard for such situations, supported by agent briefings / leaks.
It is true. Both Cesc and Van persie were both captains of the club when their rumours were coming out and neither had the fans and club in mind to come out with such a statement. But to be realistic, until he signs a new deal it’s all just tickling our balls to say the right thing right now in a moment where we are experiencing renewed belief. Still just cant believe what a monumental fuck up letting Ramsey go was. He should be the captain of this club right now and a midfield of him torriera and ozil in… Read more »
Cutting Ramsey loose was a good decision. He has done nothing of note at Juventus save being injured half the time.
Ramsey was better in our system because our system was created to benefit from his massive endurance and to make use of it. I think it was a good sell, especially with a long-term replacement in Gendouzi. Been saying it a lot, but he really reminds me of an early Ramsey with a better head for not being reckless.
Agreed. if he really wanted to stay he’d been saying things like ‘I desperately want to leave’. We shouldn’t be fooled by this unconvincing statement.
Maybe we can ship him for good sum.
Martinelli, saka, nelson all on the left, need game time. We have back at centre forward in Eddie.
But it all depends on whether we are in europa league or champions league.
Back up
I just worry that scoring goals is going to be difficult post Auba. He is the only clinical striker we have. Whatever you think of Laca, he’s probably not a thirty goal a season player. He’s just not that prolific. Pepe will add a 10 – 15, Ozil not so much, the young lads will bang in the odd one. But we need someone who is abundant in that respect. There’s a bit of me that would take £100M+ for Laca and Auba and try and bring in someone who will genuinely be a talisman but also have a few… Read more »
United have proved that you can’t just sell a goalscorer and expect young, exciting prospects to pick up the slack.
young prospect Jesse Lingard!
🙂
Disagree with this as Auba is our only goalscorer, All good players, really like Martinelli, But combined Auba would probably still out score the rest for the next couple of seasons
Similar problem to what we had in 2011-2012, with RVP as our leading scorer on 30 goals and Walcott was second, on 8. We ended up with a more balanced squad the following season with Giroud, Cazorla, Podolski, etc.
What about after we sold Henry, we were left with Adebayor and Van Persie, both around 23 years at that time and not yet proven, we brought Eduardo who only proved himself in Croatian league and had raw youngsters in Bendtner and Vela…
*Opens youtube compilation of 07/08 goals*
Yeah. Get rid of your best player because the kids “need game time”. Makes so much sense.
I think It’s very likely we sell him in the summer We need to learn from the Alexis situation. Getting potentially £60 mill for a player who’s 30, is just too good to turn down. To keep him would likely cost £300,000-£400,000 a week on a 3-4 year deal, he’ll hold no market value towards the end of his contract, and he won’t be keen on taking a pay cut, if we need to move him on, which is the current situation we find ourselves in with Ozil. And Arteta wants his teams to press, and you’d have to think… Read more »
Why worry about his market value? Surely we must keep our top scorer for the benefit of our team.
It’s about timing. We don’t have many sellable assets, and Kroenke has short arms and long pockets…. Aubameyang has over 30+ goals in his last 5 seasons, and looks like he’ll come close again this season, but at some point he’s going to dip. Arteta looks like he wants a high press, Aubameyang has a lot of football in his legs, it’ll depend on whether or not? the technical team think Aubameyang has another 3.5 season in his legs or not? Because paying a player £300,000-£400,000 p/w to be a bit part, or impact player, and who can no longer… Read more »
Your premise rests on three kind of flawed assumptions: One, that Arsenal are so poor that we simply must sell *our best goal-scorer* to raise £110,000,000 to invest in the squad, Two, that no other squad members have any transfer value, leaving us with zero option but to specifically sell Auba himself to fund a replacement, and Three, that this fictional 22-23 yr old £70,000,000 player will definitely replace Auba’s 30+ goals a season. I would argue that you are massively, massively undervaluing the worth of reliable goalscorers in general, and also the worth of Aubameyang’s goals to us since… Read more »
I’m not convinced we do have many other sellable assets. We’re turning losses, our wage bill is out of control, and if we again miss out on CL? Then it’s going to be difficult to convince Aubameyang to stay, if he gets another option? I think he’ll want out. And there’s no way we allow him to leave for free in 18 months. I don’t undervalue Aubameyang’s goals, but just because he scored 30+ for the past 5 seasons, doesn’t mean he’s going to keep pumping out those numbers, at some point he’s going to dip. Arsene used to be… Read more »
by building the game around him while his stats are going to naturally drop, we risk of getting ourselves into ozil 2.0 mess. it would be better to sell him at maximum value asap, and build the squad further, rather than cling on fadeouts at at an enourmous cost.
When we talk in these kinds of economic terms about players, we think we’re being ‘logical’. But the logic is flawed or based on too many assumptions. What is the value of Aubameyang’s goals to the club? 60m? We’re a 2 billion pound football club and he’s scored nearly 45% of our league goals over the last year. We have a Golden Boot winner playing in Arsenal colours (who rarely has spells out through injury) and we want to begrudge him a pay rise because Ozil? Why are we still pretending Ozil’s contract bankrupted the club? All the fan accountants… Read more »
regarding aubameyang, someone is saying emery brought out the best of auba last season, someone is saying we are overdependent on auba, anyway if we feel that we are overdependent on one guy, we need to solve this problem becuase the situation is unsustainable. His stats are naturally going to drop, his attitude is not stable, so his every next goal risk to be more and more expensive for the club. afc is a welathy club but i actually like the club, being run as a going concern, rather than being treated as a junky for some rich guy’s money.… Read more »
He just publicly re-stated his commitment to us.
Let’s calm down with this stuff about Aubameyang’s attitude not being ‘stable’.
did he sign?
he had his notorious moodswings in dortmund, he has been on some goalless spells with us, so being somewhat overdependent on him, we have every right to be concerned (ulness he has signed)))
Worry yourself to death if you want, but the last coach made him the new captain and the new coach is telling us he’s already witnessed Auba’s phenomenal commitment.
agree, gotta back to selling a year or two early rather the owning a year too late
There is a big difference between holding on to him until his contract runs out and resigning him on big wages for another 2-3 years (as we did with Ozil). Sure, we’d miss out on a potential transfer fee, but this could be offset by his presence in the squad giving us a real shot at making top 4 (and getting back in the CL) in Arteta’s first full season in charge. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect Auba to keep banging them in next season at close to his current rate…he isn’t going to turn into an… Read more »
Yeah I think he’ll probably stay and then leave on a free, and god bless him if he chooses to do that. He’s been one if our best ever signings imo
what about raul’s and vinay’s powerful “re-sign or get sold” threats?
arteta can’t sign anyone in january, unless absolutely necessary, so he will cling to the usual suspects until the end of the season, trying to squeeze the best possible out of them. that’s why all those fake praises and accolades.
Agreed. No footballer can play forever. Get good money for Auba in the summer and look for the next goal grabber.
“and there’s obviously a big decision looming in the summer”
Easily rectified, Get back to the champions league and he stays.
has he signed the new contract? is it 5 years or 10 years?
It’s five years, with an option to extend if he gets younger.
if he gets younger he will defintely want to run for madrid in 5 years.
I wouldn’t mind if he pulls a Romario and keeps scoring until his 40’s.
Media will of course manufacture dissent bc we are such an easy target particularly with fan sites like AFTV. Our fans so easily goaded into towing media line with any hint of dissatisfaction in back room. Auba will be a potential issue in the summer more likely. At the moment as mentioned, I don’t think Arteta will want to contemplate being without key assets like Auba, Laca or Granit. And the players seem to have at least given him the benefit of the doubt which has helped with the victory over United. but we will remain vulnerable to loss of… Read more »
Auba deserves to play as our main CF.
I think Auba loves us, he’s happy here and if we can do reasonably well this season I think he will sign a new contract. Everyone wanted to leave because of Unai Emery, and who would blame them, but these are exciting new times and I believe all our players are on board with Mikel, so hopefully he will stay.