According to The Telegraph (£), Arsenal have reached a verbal agreement with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang over a two-year contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2023.
Mikel Arteta has repeatedly expressed his optimism at the potential for a deal over the last few weeks and it would appear the double success of winning the FA Cup and securing European football, in large part down to Aubameyang’s own contribution, has helped persuade our club captain to commit his future.
Talks with the 31-year-old have been on and off for more than a year with the uncertainty over the direction of the club and the financial implications of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic both coming into play.
Obviously, if true, keeping our best player will be a huge boon to the boss. After Aubameyang’s match-winning brace against Chelsea last Saturday he said he’d like to build his team around the striker. To date, the player has 70 goals in 109 games.
Aubameyang’s new deal will be worth £250,000 a week and will also include significant bonus payments if he hits certain targets. The terms will immediately overwrite those signed in January 2018.
While we’re not trying to detract from the significance of the news, it comes 24 hours after the club announced they are looking to make 55 members of staff redundant to help minimise the financial impact of Covid-19.
Ahhh! I mean, a part of me is so cynical that this will be used to smooth over what is a disgusting decision to make 55 people redundant, especially after the players took a pay cut to try to keep other members of staff in a job. But this is great! I feel dirty, but also pretty good. A bit cheeky even. I’ll grab my coat.
I sort of agree with you! It’s a pity that today’s news somehow feels cheapened after what happened yesterday. I’ll take it though.
We are so used to being hurt by players – Nasri, Fabregas, RVP… that I can’t quite believe this. Thank you Auba for restoring my faith in club loyalty. And let’s remember that the Europa may be a draw for some players, but playing alongside Auba will be as big, if not bigger.
COYG!!!
you forgot the worst snake Cashley Cole
Anelka as well, said he left for a bigger club in a Netflix documentary on him that came out yesterday. Being a bad boy actually pays otherwise his career after Arsenal wasn’t good enough to justify a documentary.
Won everything in his career great decision
People need to calm down about the 55 individuals that have lost their jobs. Millions of people are going to be made redundant as you can’t keep people in employment if there is no work for them. It is a sad fact and will only get worse. I suspect the same people that are kicking off about people losing their jobs at Arsenal are the same ones that complained when other clubs entertained furloughing their staff. If Arsenal had been able to do that then those people might still have jobs in October. We are about to enter the deepest… Read more »
You’re familiar with Arsenal’s billionaire owner, yes? The guy whose personal wealth grew $323 million DURING the lockdown?
You’re familiar with Arsenal’s billionaire owner, yes? The guy whose personal wealth grew $323 million DURING the lockdown?
The interest alone! It’s dumbfounding.
You are aware of financial fair play right? The club has to be run as a viable business without the support of a sugar daddy.
FFP is dead at this point. Look at the CAS decision to overturn City’s ban. This is more for the convenience that KSE want Arsenal to be self sufficient, not because it has to be at this point.
Citeh might be able to get away with it, but I’ll bet we wouldn’t.
You are aware financial fair play has been suspended this season? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/18/uefa-agree-to-suspend-financial-fair-play-rules-due-to-pandemic
Tell that to Manchester City…..
Just been made redundant and our US ceo took $6 mil dividend last year …business is business as much as it sucks
Wouldn’t it be brilliant if he changed his shirt number to 55, though!
Interesting timing that they sandwiched the redundancies with an FA cup and a star’s new contract.
We haven’t forgotten.
Don’t think firing the 55 is to pay more for the players. Moving the scouts seems to be either rightly or wrongly, seen as modernising. We own a data analytics company and we use super (!) agents. So, the hierarchy see the scouts network as archaic and redundant – probably. I mean that’s the argument that Raul would have used with Kronkes, rather than we are going to save (pittance relatively).
This
Still, AUBA is crucial to us
Can you realistically build a team around a 31 year old who must at some point start losing his pace and stamina (a major part of his quality)?
Not saying I’m unhappy about this though as currently he is our best player by a long way.
Aguero is older and still a lethal finisher. Vardy is older and is still a pacy lethal finisher. Plus, when is Auba ever injured? Guy has insane stamina and is in fantastic shape.
Touch wood, please
Hear hear! The guys natural fitness is through the roof.
Messi is older, Ronaldo is older, Ibra was maybe at his best from 30-35.
Ibrahimovic did some of his best work after he turned 30. Let’s hope Auba is the same.
Do you expect Arteta to say “I eant u to stay for now but I think u will decline soon? Haha
Tbt, Auba’s game is based on his positioning and speed over a short distance. Moving him to the center (so less tracking back and running) could extend these strengths for longer. He is terrible in passing and combining anyway.
My thoughts too.
One reason for bringing Willian in is to have exemplary crossing from both wings.Saka too. Luiz and Tierney are fine over-the-top passers.
Arteta sees goals in bunches– if Auba gets more balls into the box.
A poaching wizard’s dream come true.
IMO, Willian will be the AM instead of replacing Pepe on the wing if he comes. The same for Coutinho.
Arteta has shown us what he wants from the central forward and most of it is travelling away from goal. Everything is geared to getting auba in behind using those pockets between cb and right back. Really don’t see him changing that basic approach as he could’ve done it already
I would take Zlatan at 31 all day any day.
I think the days of thirty-year-olds being sent immediately for the knackers yard, as blogs put it quite recently, are over. Vardy, Auba, Aguero. Not to mention Ronaldo and Messi, lol.
All top scorers in top 5 leagues are all over 30 including runners up. He is an asset and will continue to deliver, so it just makes sense.
Great shout
Auba is not just going to be a squad player. He has swaths of experience which will help upcoming striker, the likes of Martinelli, Saka etc. Happy that he is staying, here is hoping he retires with us.
Plus he has a positive aura around him which is very helpful for the so called “energy of the club” that Arteta is talking about
Auba is already a legend in the Arsenal folklore.
Yes, when he’s that good
His brilliance put the club in the spot where they had to give him what he wanted. The replacement cost is out of the team’s range and the fury the supporters would’ve shown them would be out of this world.
It’s the minimum requirement for this window; this had to happen like the Saka deal because if they didn’t stay, we’d be up a damn creek. Looking forward to the official announcement
Stamina actually keeps doesn’t fall off a cliff until much later for many people (Mo Farah, for example, won the World Championship 10K at age 34, if I am not mistaken).
Besides Vardy, other top scorers in Europe: Lewandowski is about to turn 32 (yeah, I know, but really in a couple of weeks); Immobile is 30; Benzema 32 (the actual top scorer in Spain is even older, but he doesn’t count because he is an alien).
I think genetics and injury records may be more significant factors than age in determining explosive speed while a footballer is still active. Despite having age on his side, I feel that the unfortunate nature of Bellerin’s injuries is what causes him to be a step slower this season. If Aubameyang can stay fit, I don’t believe he will slow down so much that in 2 years he won’t still be an elite level striker. Auba is the only world class player we have. I agree with Arteta’s assessment that he would cost us “zillions” to replace. The rumours, if… Read more »
He has a massive role to play for us, not only shouldering the responsibility for scoring but also in helping with the development of Martinelli, Nketiah and Saka ……. we obviously need to address the defence and midfield, both of these areas need an injection of talent, but things are looking far more promising with Saliba coming in and hopefully Ceballos joining us either permanently or on loan. Get rid of the dead wood and bring in a couple of top four quality players. At this moment in time, despite the poor league position, trophywise we have had a better… Read more »
Yes, let’s just let our best player, who now wants to stay, go.
There’s no ifs or buts around this. At all.
I don’t think he’ll lose pace or sharpness. I just think there’s a good chance he’ll end up pulling a hamstring and it’ll be recurring. Obviously hope I’m wrong but if he keeps getting utilised in the same way that demands sprints then I think it’s a matter of time
That was the 90s, maybe early noughties.
Auba (and his generation of players) have had the best professionals looking after their physical well-being from an early age. Then there’s luck.
Players will continue to extend their careers at the top level more frequently. 2 of those three years will be fire.
Golden boot, runner up….. he’s not going to become piss poor over the next 6 weeks (3 for community shield). We got nothing to worry about.
Hallelujah! So happy if this comes true.
Doesn’t erase the horrors of our layoffs and abdication of key scouting positions, but this is special.
This is excellent. He’s the only player over 30 who should be offered a multiyear contract. COYG!
And Willian?
And 33 year old Kieran Tierney
This is as good as a new signing. We lost him we would never be able to afford to replace him. I hope that this will be a great statement to players we are trying to sign.
But i agree with others, this does overshadow the news from yesterday and it does come at a very convenient time.
LANS
Great news for us going forwards, not only as our talisman and club captain, but the attraction of other players to link up with one of Europe’s top class strikers.
Just a shame the news is tinged with a feeling of bitterness, resentment and fucking-Kroenke-twatness towards the club and those high up the food chain.
Very happy to hear this if true, while still sore over the 55 redundancies.
Auba our talismanic Captain! Hope he will galvanise our players and move forward. Mikel must’ve been a huge driving force in the negotiations.
Probably Don Raul sees keeping Auba for two more years for justification to kill our scouting network.
#SanllehiOut
Stop complaining. Sanllehi is not that bad. Miles better than Gazides/Law
No need to stack one up against the other, they’re all shit
Besides, Gazidis was just incompetent. I didn’t get the impression he was corrupt too. I think he bought in to the concept of Arsenal’s ‘values’ – in the most shallow, corporate way possible
Typical Bai Blagoi, still doing toxic hashtags like this is twitter.
Doesn’t comment on the FA Cup Final win post, or match ratings or other celebratory posts after that. But never fails to pipe up when there’s something negative to say. The definition of a bottom-feeder.
That’s not the definition of a bottom-feeder…
The phrase “I’m over the moon” doesn’t mean someone has literally jumped over a space rock either
Formal Definition of ‘Bottom-feeder’: any marine creature that lives on the seabed and feeds by scavenging
Bloody hell lads.
Is a muckraker someone who literally rakes muck?
Is an arseblog literally a blog about arses?
The definition of bottom-feeder also includes: A person, news organisation, etc which dwells amidst, or thrives off unwholesome things
Giant douche and a turd sandwich
Verbal agreement like management gave the players about saving jobs?
If so, I hope he demands that the club shows some humanity and make a u-turn on the lay-offs.
Massive news if true. Auba is vital for this team and he looks in top shape still, I just can’t see a speedy decline in the next season or two. And even if he does lose a bit of pace, he has much more qualities than that.
Great news.
Very true, he’s so efficient and intelligent in his movement that his pace is just an added bonus really. Quite a small proportion of his goals come as a result of being really fast
Anyway, retention of pace depends massively on hunger to train and injuries/wear and tear. Auba is never injured and doesn’t spend games haring around after lost causes (in a good way), so hopefully his legs should be fresh a while yet. Sprinters like Gatlin, Fredericks, Collins, Christie etc prove it’s possible to retain peak speed well into their 30s
Top man
Some good news in a week of largely bad news – but let’s hope it’s put in writing and signed! As the US movie producer Sam Goldwyn (the “G” in MGM studios) once said, “A verbal contract ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on”. By the way, I wonder how we’re going to pay for it?
Whatever genuine positives we can take as loyal fans – take them and don’t feel guilty. It wasn’t our decision to make those 50+ people jobless – it was a greedy Trump-esque wanker. So, we can both deplore the actions of the board and celebrate the actions of the manager and the club captain. Thanks to Arteta and Auba, this wonderful old club lives to fight another day. Not just for goals, victories, cups, titles and all the trappings of success – but also to restore, if only in part, the great and good name of Arsenal Football Club. Now,… Read more »
Fantastic if true, but I’m having trouble separating the joy/relief of this from yesterday’s news. What I found so distasteful was that it was dressed up in finances, covid, money for player recruitment etc when in fact it appears to be simply a purge of rivals and power grab by forces that I’m not sure put Arsenal first.
But gawd do we need Auba. It will be interesting to see who Kia can can bring in to work with him.
Agree, it’s a strategic restructuring of the way the club operates – and a consolidation of power – all the other stuff is just a PR smokescreen.
Fabulous News it is. Up Gunners
I am happy don’t get me wrong but, what I am hoping for is for the players to go up to the board and tell them to get our staff back.
Liverpool messed up with that furlough scandal and their fans let them know it. Whilst it was embarrassing for them, they did fix it which I can respect. There is still time to fix this mess here. Cancel the Willian deal too while their at it.
I don’t think the board wants those staff back – they’ve eliminated their roles at the club, not laid off people because they can’t afford them. This is strategic more than financial.
This is good news – despite the obvious question of his age – and sends a big signal about the club’s commitment to Arteta’s vision. Without Abu Arsenal is a much less appealing place for future potential transfers targets.
It’s a shame it has to come as the topping of a shit sandwich. (Were the players taking paycuts told that the scouting system was to be dismantled?)
Honest question here, does Aubameyang go by “Abu” in addition to “Auba”? Or is this a case of auto correct?
I’d like to blame auto correct but it was just my sloppy typing!
Great news
Don’t take me wrong, and I don’t want to come out as picky or anything, but while I’m happy about Auba potentially staying, I’m disgusted about the way the club has behaved with the 55 staff members that are apparently getting the sack. I fell in love with this team for mainly 2 reasons: The brand of football we played (giving youth players a chance and playing beautiful football, having even some of the best players I’ve seen AKA Henry, God, Ljunberg, etc). And 2, we were always seen as a classy team, treating our players, staff, and even adversaries… Read more »
the billionaire owner is the root of the problem
Maybe you should buy the club.Stan won’t change no matter how much we can comment
Love the signing but what will be left to sign defenders? I’m guessing he will lobby to keep Laca as well. Have to place complete trust in Arteta.
I hope Aube does sign, not forgetting the pay-cuts all the players took were supposed to be on the proviso none off the backroom staff were let go. Still much to do of course.
The timing is terrible with the jobs cuts. The truth is our scouting network is outdated and woefully ineffective. Arsenal fans seem to think this is accountancy FC with the way judgement is passed on club financial decisions.
I’m delighted if this is correct but concerned about the redundancies on a human level and because we seem to be intending to operate without scouts ( crazy!) . I’m also concerned that the squad will feel hacked off having taken a pay cut specifically to avoid the need for redundancies.
Bloody hell, this must be the first captain in quite a few years we’ve retained, usually our captains leave within a year of being made it. Happy days
If Willian may get 3 years, why can’t Auba!?
Disregard
Perhaps he thinks he’ll have one more move left in him when the new contract is up? At his age, I think it’s the best option for all parties and something positive at least.
F**k me
Just now get the best 2-3 players and start firing.
If confirmed then fantastic news and another endorsement for Mikel and his vision especially given Auba is our skipper.
xlnt??
a great day if this is true, not so sure about Willian he could well hamper the development of a couple of our promising youngsters …… and three year contract is a bit ridiculous given his age. The planned redundancies are a disgrace after the players took a pay cut to try to avoid this scenario …… We have the greediest and worst owner in Kroenke, given his wealth and the wealth of his wife he could have avoided this ….. shame on all the previous directors who sold out to this snake.
Forgive my cynicism, but money won’t have been the only factor. I would think that certain promises will have been made that, if we don’t get back to CL next season he can leave while he’s still able to command a big fee/salary.
Possibly. If it is anything to do with CL qualification in the near future then he may, I fear, not be with us for too much longer. It will be a big ask to get a top four finish next season – especially given the way that the top teams are already strengthening their squads. Hopefully we can also do something positive in this transfer window, but there’s quite a gap still to close to reach the sunlit uplands of the CL.
Great news if true 🙂
I really do think it is time we start adjusting our expectations of players and them declining once they hit 30, with the advancement in sport sciences, players really do seem to be like fine wines and get better with age.. Auba is a prime example, Santi is 35 and had one of his best seasons in a while ( even more remarkable after his injury )
What an ubelievable piece of news. You gotta love Auba and retaining one of the best strikers in world football at the peak of his career is monumental for Arsenal.
This news would have made me so much happier if it wasn’t for the announcement of job losses yesterday. Such a strange conflicting feeling. I don’t even know what to call it.
Great news!
Had more time to think about “redundancies” again-
Not a bad thing to freshen up recruiting dept. Some have been there so long, it’s stale
Sad people lost their jobs
What is the record of recruiting/stat dna last 10 years? I remember elneny, Gabriel, Perez, mustafi, Ospina, lichsteiner, etc as recent recruits. Are they responsible for these?
Is there a plan for the recruiting dept in the future?
More thoughts later
will believe it when i see him seated in the tomas rosicky memorial contract dungeon
Really skeptical that the 6th wealthiest team is in such financial stress. If that’s true the whole league is in trouble.
At some point we need to update our views about athletes’ fitness in their 30s. Look at Ronaldo, Federer, Ibrahimovic, etc. Plenty of athletes approaching 40 still competing at the top. Didn’t used to be the case, but there’s been tonnes of progress in sport science in last 20 years, and it’s no longer unrealistic for someone like Auba (or Willian!) to stay at their physical peak post mid-30s.
Best news of this transfer window
To be honest here is how I feel as someone who has been made redundant before It’s not a nice feeling but sadly happens most people during their life times through various economic cycles.
However I follow and support Aresnal and if it’s a choice if having a better football team and something to cheer about next season or saving 55 jobs and finishing 8th to 12th in the league next year I know what I would choose
I am not as happy as I would probably have been 24 hours before.
Off topic though, I just heard that Man City have signed Nathan Ake.
Looks like Man City have no intention to seriously shore up that defense, even Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings is a better defender than Nathan Ake. Looks like this works in our favour next season. Haha.
Not sure how people can mix the feeling of redundancies and Auba signing a new contract. They are two separate things.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that redundancies funded the increase in Auba contract in some way when we have a reduction in playing staff.
Same happened when we signed him, we signed one striker but three or four significant players left and were not replaced.
You don’t exactly mean “the financial impact of Covid-19” though, do you? More like the consequences of the decisions taken to fight the “war” on Covid19, am I right? According to the CDC in the USA, the mortality rate of infected people is 0.26% (and yes, it is similar with a common flu rate). According to a study from a respected US institute (MIT I think), the mortality rate for people under 70 is 0.04%. But hey, don’t let anyone tell you it wasn’t all oh so necessary… Anyway, looking forward to watching Auba scoring plenty more goals for the… Read more »
Thanks, Tucker Carlson.
My pleasure.
You know it: even on this jolly good site, I just can’t let group think prevail!
https://youtu.be/Z4LtEciQUF8?t=109
I don’t think anything is cast in stone. He will likely be awaiting potential offers from clubs and they may not execute until after CL finals. So Telegraph may report this but decision frankly yet to be made. Personally as mentioned before think we need to be far more cold and calculating. PEA’s output in goals will be hard to replace but we’ve been here before. Wenger had the balls to first release Henry. Adebayor stepped up then RVP. Then when we sold RVO, walcott and Ramsey back to back had bumper years. So we should not be afraid to… Read more »
Imagine if Auba said he wouldn’t sign until they reversed the decision on the 55
“While we’re not trying to detract from the significance of the news, it comes 24 hours after the club announced they are looking to make 55 members of staff redundant to help minimise the financial impact of Covid-19.”
Surprised there is not even mention of us having NO scouts left. Not single one left at this club. Bit dissapointed with the lack of outrage, clickbait, neurotic points on good news.
Let’s get rid of auba and keep 55 staff who we have no idea what their actual jobs are. Then when we cant succeed on the pitch you can all bitch and moan some more.
I hate how Arseblog keeps going on about the club spending big and backing the manager – come on, get real, wake up. We live in a real financial world where you can’t keep spending more than you make. We’ve had no gate receipts for months.
I said the manager should be backed. I’ve never said we should ‘spend big’. I’m well aware of the financial situation.
Just think that he came to Arsenal as a player with a bit of a reputation for being problematic when he has been nothing but a great teammate and citizen for Arsenal.