According to The Times, Arsenal paid Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a significant sum of money to leave for Barcelona on deadline day.
What’s the story?
Well, just like Mikel Arteta and Edu did with Mesut Özil and Shkodran Mustafi, Aubameyang saw his contract terminated.
However, it cost Arsenal a sum of £7m to get rid of their £56m signing.
Aubameyang earned £350,000-a-week at the Emirates Stadium, but he has now taken a pay cut to team up with Xavi at the Camp Nou.
The Gabon international had 18 months remaining on his contract with Arsenal, so the £7m fee represents the wages he would’ve been paid.
Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary amount of money for the north Londoners to part with, in order to force out one of their biggest names.
To put that into context, the signing of Gabriel Martinelli cost Arsenal £6m.
In that respect, a decent player could’ve been found for that £7m sum, although Arteta decided to use it to offload the 32-year-old.
Arsenal have to learn from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saga
It beggars belief that Arsenal found themselves in this situation with Özil after handing the German a huge contract, and then put themselves in the exact same circumstance with Aubameyang.
Now, Arsenal need to stop tying players in their thirties, or approaching their thirties, down to lucrative contracts.
Clearly, it isn’t a sensible approach, and often leaves the Gunners having to shell out millions just to get themselves out of the problem.
Of course, both Özil and Aubameyang had disciplinary issues with Arteta, which is out of Arsenal’s control.
However, it would’ve been much easier to get rid of them were they not tied to massive deals, without a shadow of a doubt.
If Arsenal go on to throw millions at another ageing star, we will be baffled.
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