Barcelona’s sporting director Eric Abidal has confirmed that the Camp Nou outfit will look to sign a number 9 in the summer and revealed that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a player that they are keeping tabs on.
The Catalans had been expected to recruit a striker in January after Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele picked up injuries but despite having their eye on the Arsenal captain, Olivier Giroud and Fernando Llorente they failed to get a deal over the line.
In a wide-ranging interview in Sport, Abidal touched on his club’s future transfer plans.
“It is logical that in summer a ‘9’ will come. It is a necessity. We know that [Luis] Suarez will come back strong, but you have to bring a top player in the summer,” he said.
“We do not know if it will be young or experienced. We only look at the talent and adaptation they may have. We must think that some top players have come and have not adapted well.
“I know him (Aubameyang). He has a profile that has depth. He is important, and in his team he is decisive.
“It is good to bring this profile of player who can be in the market and can help you. We’ll see what will happen.
“There is a list with players like [Olivier] Giroud, [Fernando] Llorente or Aubameyang, but for one thing or another we decided not to sign [someone in January]. We believe it is best for the club.”
Abidal has since earned the wrath of Lionel Messi. In the same interview, the former France international seemed to suggest that some of the club’s first team players weren’t trying hard enough under Ernesto Valverde and that as a consequence they had to sack the coach.
Messi took to Instagram to tell his former teammate to focus on his own decisions. Quique Setien has since been appointed Barcelona coach after approaches for Xavi and Ronald Koeman came to nothing.
Sid Lowe, writing in the Guardian, has since suggested Barcelona, who are second to Real Madrid in La Liga, are in ‘meltdown’ as a result of Messi’s outburst. The Argentine has a clause in his contract that allows him to unilaterally walk away for free at the end of this campaign.
If we were guessing, Abidal’s days are numbered.
It remains to be seen what Arsenal do with Aubameyang. The striker will head into the final year of his contract at the Emirates in the summer and with negotiations over a new deal stalling, there’s a fairly high chance we could flog him.
What they lack in class they make up for in cuntishness.
Aren’t those basically the same thing?
Hmm ‘Classy cunt’ – would you describe Thanos was one Or agent Smith from The Matrix..
Or Marcellus Wallace! “There is no me and you”.
Come on, we talk about signing other team’s players all the time. The fact that he listed Giroud, Llorente, and Aubameyang–three very different players–tells you he was just saying the club is looking at everyone. Though maybe, I have a soft spot for Abidal, who came back from liver cancer and then a liver transplant to lift the Champions League trophy at Wembley after beating United. One of the best stories in football in the past ten years.
They can have Auba, as long as we don’t have Messi
*can have Messi! D’oh!
That will be fab. Add Ozil in that package and can pay their salaries to Messi.
Suppose these kind of fanciful deals is what Raul and his super agents thrive on. Only problem is paying about £30-40 M as agent fees!
Oh, yes, Özil to Barca… The club and their players are arrogant and lil brats, but at least Özil’s assists wouldn’t be missed by the strikers.
What assists? ?
He meant pre assists. I believe Ozil provides a half dozen of them in every game. Doesn’t help us win the game but its still an important stat for Ozil fanboys.
Let’s get Messi to sort Abidal on social media
This will probably get down voted, but I reckon we should sell him in the summer. He has one year left of his contract, and he is not getting younger…
Yes, he has been sooo important for us, and I love the guy. but if we get the option to get 60-70 mill or so for him.. I’d take it. Use the money wisely and invest in Haaland,Kai Havertz or someone we could use for many years.
No down vote from me, but I think the price tag you suggest is unrealistic, for all the reasons you mention (age, contract).
As for Haaland, I feel we’ve already missed that opportunity. He’ll be at Dortmund until he’s at Real, Bayern, Barca or PSG.
There’s a reason Haaland went for such a low sum to Dortmund. He’s probably added a low release clause for when Real Madrid or Barcelona come knocking in a year’s time.
As for Aubameyang, I’d keep him if we’re not getting more than £50m. Replacing his goals is a huge challenge and it’ll be easier if we could do it as a CL team in summer of 2021.
I’m so torn re Auba. I totally see the logic but selling him almost seems like conceding defeat. Realistically it’s all academic if Barca do come calling- he’d clearly want to go and who could blame him.
But out of interest why do you think someone of Haaland’s profile would ever come to us..? We don’t have the massive name of a United or even Liverpool when they were in their bad patch. We’re in real trouble here, no two ways about it.
it really does depend on what we do with the money we’d receive. if we’d reuse it wisely, we’d simply just expedite the process we’ll have to go through soon nonetheless. whether we sell him or not, in two to three years maximum we’d have to restructure anyhow (we actually should be doing that already). one way or the other, our reliance on Auba is a problem. Mikel said it himself that we need to develop more means of surprising opponents, and we do need to have our goals and assists spread around better. selling Auba for a nice fee… Read more »
Massive Name Like Man U In Their Bad Patch Yeah…But Liverpool???…Arsenal Has Always Been A Bigger Name With A Greater Pulling Power On Players Than Liverpool…Until Recently Though
You were doing just fine until you entered Haaland territory. I don’t think there are going to many Haaland sightings at Europa League level clubs anytime soon.
Still upvoted you anyway.
Agreed, not a snowballs hope in hell of us signing Haaland. Hard to think his next move will for anything less than £100m + and to a club that’s fignting for the CL. I’d be inclined to throw the kitchen sink at Auba to keep him. Where else are we going to get a 20 + goals striker with the money we’d get for him, considering he’s 30 and heading into the last year of his contract. I don’t see us getting anything over £40m. Obviousley the risk is another Ozil situation, but you’d have to be confident that Auba… Read more »
We’d get over 40……if we weren’t arsenal.
We probably only got 40 for the ox cause they said “we will give you 15m to play him against us”
Why sell Auba when he is far and away our best player? He’s getting older, sure, but that hasn’t affected his game. He’s lethal and he loves Arsenal – let him lead the way for a few more years, and let Martinelli and Nketiah learn from one of the best. Time to focus on rebuilding our midfield.
It’s the RVP argument: do you sell him when you can actually get a buck for him, even if its maybe a year or so before he properly starts to decline? Or do you keep him on, full wages, through his twilight years, ever diminishing in value (see Mesut Ozil)?
Considering Auba’s goalscoring record, even on a wildly underperforming Arsenal for the past 2 years, I would have no hesitation giving him a 2-3 year extension. He has not suffered any major injuries since joining us, and appears to have all of his athleticism intact; his speed will begin to diminish, but not by a lot, and offsetting that will be his increased wisdom and experience. He appears to love Arsenal, despite many of its fairweather fans and piddle-pad critics, so I do hope we can make it work and have him lead the line for a few year to… Read more »
because it’s not necessarily up to us, he hasn’t signed a new contract and we’ve let too many top players leave for nothing in recent years. If we have to sell him we have to sell him.
Right, so let’s hope the men upstairs can do their jobs a bit better and entice him sign a new contract.
Realistically why would auba sign a new contract. Give him one last chance at champions league and sell him he deserves it
I’m happy with either. I’m not happy with us selling him for peanuts though.
If we offer him the right terms and he loves his current job, why wouldn’t he stay?
Heading to another team in another country with another culture and another language and another style of football might not be what this 30-year-old superhero wants right now — he might just want to save Arsenal. 😉
I wouldn’t mind cashing in, especially if we keep playing him as a winger, which he just isn’t. Reinvest in the midfield, and let Eddie and Laca fight it out.
Laca looks finished. Pray he proves me wrong.
Form is temporary, class is permanent, and he has oodles of class. Just hasn’t been right since the injury.
Laca doesn’t have much class. Sorry to say but along with sokratis and lichsteiner when we brought them in, they are praised for c**tery.
People forget we have been here before with Laca, slightly different circumstances but still. He really struggles with changes of form.
My guess is Auba would love to make that move. I remember him being interviewed when he was still at Dortmund saying that his dream was to play in
La Liga and I don’t think he meant for Getafe… If we could get fair compensation for him it would seem to be smart to do that deal.
No lt that it matters at all in today’s (or any other apparently) world, but his dream was/is Real. At least according to news from few years ago.
“He promised his grandfather that he would play for Real Madrid and since he was a little boy he spoke about Madrid and never about Barcelona.”
Offer him a a new sensible new contract, if he signs great if not he goes and we reinvest whatever we get for him, he is in no way irreplaceable for the right price.
while we’re at it get how about letting lacazette move on as well, we have two players for one position, Auba is being played wide to accommodate lacca, we have better options. selling them both would raise considerable funds to finace a top quality replacement (if they can be persuaded to come to Arsenal) .
Messi for Auba swap deal heard it here first
Messi is old and injured, those days have passed.
He would be ‘found out’ in England at this age. Also why risk his legacy? Losing to ronaldo by not doing it in England? Messi is good but even he couldn’t drag this arsenal team to cl glory.
Santa cazorla on the other hand…..
I would much rather keep him but I could understand if he wanted to go given where we are at the moment, and think we’d have to cash in
Even if we got stupid money for Auba, I don’t really trust this management team now to spend it wisely. That being said, I’d rather have stupid money than peanuts. I hope I’m wrong. I’m going a bit crazy.
Honestly feel since wenger signings have been good (bar SL, but there were many reasons why he didn’t work)
I can’t name one outright dud.
straight swap plus 1p for messi
Knowing Barca, the idea that they will spend “stupid” money for him in the summer with one year left on his deal is fanciful. We’ll get a low-ball bid of 25m for him and end up haggling all summer those c*nts. The sad reality is he won’t sign a new deal, we absolutely need to move him on. Yes he’s our primary goal scorer, but the midfield desperately needs to be addressed, we’ve got to get shot of Mesut, and we have to see how good these kids really are. Sad reality.
As sad as I will be I think Auba deserves to play for a top team and win a few trophies before he retires.
Sadly doesnt look like it will be with us 🙁
We’ve been very fortunate to have him. However, if he’s not signing a new contract we need to cash in at the end of the season and re-invest.
I would sell Aubameyang for the right price. £60mill for a player who’s 30, is good money. His value both on and off the pitch is only going to diminish from here. We seen with Alexis, his fall from grace was rapid, whilst Ozil’s has been more sporadic. Players form generally dip past 30, particularly with forward position requiring increasing levels of athleticism. And for these reason, I would also sell Lacazette for the right price as well, even though I love his work rate and commitment. £120-£130mill for these two, Mkhitaryan and Mustafi, then try and give Ozil a… Read more »
Some players should be unsellable on a team; and they should know that. I think Auba is one of the few on Arsenal who deserve that cap. He’s approaching the age when teams traditionally offload a player, but I see no decline in his recent goalscoring exploits despite playing on our team. This guy won the golden boot last year, and if we ever find our attacking clothes again then Auba is going to look awfully dapper. Arsenal are still a wealthy club, despite our clumsy fall from grace, so let’s not worry about the wage bill. There are players… Read more »
When we turned down £60 mill for Alexis, it was considered ambitious. When we offered Ozil £300k p/w, the Ozilites cheered…. They turned out to be a very poor decisions. Donyell Malen looks a big talent, and is a player on the climb. If we give Aubameyang £300+k p/w on a 3 year deal? Thats a £50mill investment over the next 3 years, it’ll be impossible to shift him if his form falls off a cliff, and he’ll hold zero value in three years time. i think it’s risky, he couldn’t possibly be making a sporting decision in signing a… Read more »
We made a mistake with Alexis, for sure, and Alexis then made a mistake going to a team that didn’t play attacking football well. A shame what has become of him considering how powerful he was with us. All contracts are risks — nothing is guaranteed. We can encourage our club to be fiscally responsible with their assets, for sure, but we can also expect them to try very hard to keep the players we love to watch. Auba is one of those. If Auba wants to renew on better terms and believes that Arteta’s project will bring success, then… Read more »
The Board have already said players won’t be allowed to run onto the final year of their contracts. He might just be persuaded to sign an extension if we win Europa League, but if we don’t then, if you believe the Board, he’s history.
Fuck Abidal
Fuck Barca
Wahee! To them having a meltdown
Auba is clearly leaving his options, or else he would have signed that contract that’s been on the table for a while now. Get him to sign, on the understanding that he can still leave in the summer if he feels inclined to. That way, we get decent money for him
That goes against him. If he extends he may get less in wages.
Good luck. He won’t stay. Not for a club outside CL.
Big lucrative offer with Barca at tail end of career or stay with mid table English club? Hmmm lets see…
auba Is losing his touch along with lacagoal we can do better
Auba shared the golden boot last year while playing under Unai Emery — you really think he’s losing his touch? With 13 games to go in the PL, I have a feeling he’s going to hit 25 goals this year.
Daydreams: griezmann would be so good at arsenal
Yes, he’ll come to a club not in the CL.
I like Auba but…
He is 30.
He has no skill except scoring so he contribute minimally to overall play
He still hasnt signed the contract.
So I think we should sell him for 60 million and rebuild. Or exchange him for Coutinho.
Personally I think he would be better off going to Real or PSG. He is most likely to become a flop at Barca.
Auba-“he has no skill except scoring”-meyang
ill be sad even though a good buck for him would be nice, just sad because he could have been one of my favourite ever players, but in a dire team, it was the same with supermac.
The way this team is being reinforced, the inability to punch higher, the sort of recruitment mistakes made by Sanlehi (72m for Pepe now looking costly), we will be shelled out and likely reinforced with unknowns…
Probably, we will be competing against the Evertons and Wolves. Even Leicester…
United and Chelsea despite rookie managers have spending will.
Liverpool and City streaks ahead.
Even Spurs will likely continue to edge us.
Worried about us in 4th under Wenger. Not happy with Emery in 5th.
Well well…
We won’t keep him. May also lose Lacazette if we are not careful.
Also Torreira or Granit may be yet unsettled.
Pretty much in danger of losing some of our better players.
Which means shelled out and start from scrtach with potentially(likely) smaller budget being out of Europa and saddled with 20m on the misfiring Pepe and the hitherto unknown Saliba (hopefully a hit)
And people are worried what to do with Lacazette…
Dunno why anyone would be worried about Lacazette.
he performs a very useful function for the team combating and laying off the ball from up top (never mind if he isn’t quite scoring)
FAR more ineffective is Pepe.
…yet some people prefer to imagine otherwise.
I believe Giroud would be a great fit for you. He has profile, world Cup winner. Fa Cup winner with Arsenal.. I mean he fits your main prerequisite which is “Arsenal player”. He would also link up with Griezman. Go tap him up..
Love him but if he doesn’t want to stay then sell him. Arsenal will continue
I love Auba, but we obviously have to sell him and recoup, no more of these Ramsey like situations. Hopefully the club has learnt, you have to take the money when the other option is $0
I’d love for us to go for Alexander Isak from Real Sociedad. wouldn’t cost more than £25 mil, maybe we could get him on the cheap since we practically gifted them Nacho. The kid has the physicality to make it in the prem. He’s super quick and agile for such a big striker (1.90cm). His hold up play is probably better than Laca’s already, and his movement is fantastic. I’ve followed him closely since he was 16, him and Haaland are by far the best strikers to come out of scandinavia since Zlatan. In every new surrounding he finds himself… Read more »
If Auba goes, may be a chance for another academy product step in.