Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a steal like no other

Arsenal signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for £56 million. Reflecting, such a signing for such a price was a steal like no other.

I remember when the links of Arsenal making a move for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang first started to seep out of the media. It was the usual guff from the tabloid papers that is difficult to ever believe. And I wrote precisely that, saying that I would only accept their accuracy once I saw any actual tangible movement on the transfer.

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They came just before the January window opened. And throughout the month, they persisted, not dying out as they usually do. By the end of the window, Arsenal were unveiling a club-record signing, a week after Henrikh Mkhitaryan, his former Borussia Dortmund teammate, arrived from Manchester United and on the same day as Mesut Ozil signed a new contract.

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There was great excitement regarding all three moves. Mkhitaryan’s arrival had shipped Alexis Sanchez, a growing thorn in the side, out of the club, while Ozil would no longer leave on a free transfer and was coming off a run of games in which he was beginning to get back to his best. But of the three, the real bargain was Aubameyang, although it may only be now that I am coming to the realisation of just how cheap he was.

Aubameyang eventually arrived in north London for £56 million. It was a club-record deal, topping the £47 million paid for Alexandre Lacazette just six months prior. In that same summer, Chelsea paid £60 million for Alvaro Morata, another club-record fee, who is now on loan at Atletico Madrid, such has been his ineptitude, and Manchester United bought Romelu Lukaku for £75 million, young Marcus Rashford usurping him as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first-choice centre-forward.

Aubameyang arrived very much under the radar. And ever since, his performances have continued to fly under the radar. He does not garner the attention that many of the top goalscorers in the Premier League receive. Only Mohamed Salah has scored more league goals this season. Aubameyang truly is one of the best goalscorers in world football.

But what makes him such a sensationally cheap signing is that he was already one of the best goalscorers in world football. Salah developed into the player that he is today. He did not arrive at Liverpool as a £100 million player. Harry Kane was a youth product. Sergio Aguero was signed prior to the recent explosion in transfer fees.

Aubameyang arrived on a level above all of those players. And yet he was signed for substantially less than what any of those players would be sold for now. Aubameyang is an £80 million player — that price may depreciate slightly because of his age, but the quality of his play certainly deems such a value.

He was a complete and utter steal, almost unlike any other. It is odd that you can pay north of £50 million for a player and consider them a bargain, but that is precisely what Aubameyang is. An absolute bargain.