Arsenal lose two key clubs in Aubameyang transfer scramble

The hunt is on in the final two days of the January transfer window to find a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a new club. His time at Arsenal is up.

It’s all a bit of a mess. Only one of the four strikers on the books has a future in north London beyond this season, and he’s too young to be playing Premier League football.

Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette both run out of contract in the summer and neither are considered of the level required, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been, for all intents and purposes, banished from the club.

A club of this size having those four as their centre-forward options? Only at Arsenal.

Arsenal lose two key clubs in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang transfer scramble with Al Nassr & Al Hilal no longer in the running as Barcelona remain favourites

Efforts are being made to bring that number down further though, with Barcelona and Juventus making official approaches to take Aubameyang on loan until the end of the season. La Blaugrana have even struck a financial agreement with the Gunners and are just waiting on Ousmane Dembele to be sold.

As far as destinations go, however, none were more alluring to Arsenal than the pair of offers coming in from Riyadh-based duo Al Hilal and Al Nassr. Both are now out of the race now.

While Aubameyang always preferred to stay in Europe for personal and professional reasons, the Saudi Arabian clubs were offering to take on the 32-year-old’s full salary and pay a fee for him at the end of the season. Ideal terms for Arsenal given the circumstances.

James Benge revealed that Al Nassr sought to satisfy Aubameyang’s needs in the best way possible, making a last ditch attempt to convince him by including a break clause in the contract after 12 months that would allow the Gabon captain to return to Europe if there was a suitable offer.

Financially it would be the same wage packet and terms, and the deal would be for three and a half years. With the Saudi transfer deadline being on Sunday, the offer was lodged on Saturday and duly turned down. Al Nassr then fully withdrew their offer.

Never Aubameyang’s preferred destinations, they were Arsenal’s. With Al Hilal signing Odion Ighalo their interest ended, and it is instead full steam ahead for Barcelona.

A nervous few days await for Arsenal as they pin their hopes on Dembele being bought by a club somewhere before the deadline, a move that has to come off in order for Barcelona to bring Aubameyang in.

Even if that does materialise, which it looks like it might, then it’s still hardly much of a victory for Arsenal who will need to subsidise an unknown percentage of this salary just to have him playing elsewhere. As it stands, though, that’s their only chance left.