It really does take some doing to sell your top goalscorer and Golden Boot winner but there are very good reasons why Arsenal should consider doing such a bold move.
These are not normal circumstances, the club is in a little bit of turmoil right now, they are in a rut and they need to find a way out of their current predicament and the only way to do that is to sell one of their biggest assets.
One can easily find five reasons why Arsenal must not sell Aubameyang but unfortunately, it is easy to find five good reasons why they must sell the Gabon international.
Arsenal needs the money
Aubameyang is probably the biggest asset and I struggle to think of any other player that will raise us the amount of money that we would receive for him. The owner will not inject any fresh funds and so to have a healthy transfer budget we have to sell our biggest asset, Liverpool did it, Spurs did it, we have to do it.
He is not getting any younger
Auba is now 30 and even if he had another great season his career at the very top is entering its twilight years, he will not get any faster, his speed will start to decline and most importantly, his value can only go down, it will not rise.
There are just two years left on his contract
Arsenal now has a policy whereby they will offer new contracts when players enter their final two years of a contract or they get sold. That is all well and good when a player is 26 but at 30 what is going to happen? Do they extend until he is 33-34 on a huge wage? That is madness, a player with a declining resale value earning £180k per week and we give him a longer contract and more money, that is the sort of business that has got us into the trouble we are in now.
We can replace Aubameyang with youth
The forward line is not our biggest area of concern, we already have Alexandre Lacazette up there and we have talented youngsters that should be given a chance to shine, players like Eddie Nketiah or we could even use Reiss Nelson or Xavier Amaechi on the wings with Laca the lone striker, in fact, we may even be able to convert either of those youngsters or simply buy in a new striker for a lot less than we get for Auba. Point is we have options and who knows, we may have a youngster as Spurs had with Harry Kane. The difference is though, they gave Kane a chance. Arsenal must do the same.
It could start a revolution
Liverpool sold Phillipe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez and used the money to start a revolution at Anfield, Tottenham sold Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Dimitar Berbatov etc and have used that money down the years to slowly but surely rebuild their team. We have to do the same. We have to begin a revolution at the Emirates, we have a new manager and he needs players to fit his vision.
1 reason why we shouldn’t …
Leagues top scorer last season ,nuff said
Sell Auba and minus his goals from our goal next season. I can’t even imagine an Arsenal fan wants our top scorers sold. He should not be sold, let arsenal sign good players to will add it his quality.
To me it shows that we all have a very different way we view and analyse football.
Some are more interested in This Stat and That Stat while others prefer looking deeper into different aspects each individual accumulates..
Some are more interested in
“This player has this many goals”.
“That player has this many assists”.
“That player has this many tackles”
This player has this many passes”
Etc..
How come Auba is our highest scorer by a distance but still people would prefer to keep Laca if a choice was to be made?
May be I am being delusional but that is what I have been brought up on.
Henry was not just a goal scorer.
Bergkamp was not just a creator / assister.
Vieira was not just a tackler.
Cesc was not just a chance or assists creator.
Rvp was not just a goal scorer.
Pires not just a one dimensional.
Sanchez not just a scorer.
Cazorla not just a chance creater.
Etc..
But he is 30 years old for God’s sake sell him I agree with Martin 100%
While I agree we have to look towards the future what about the now?What happens if we go with youth either side of Lava and don’t replace Auba and Laca gets injured?
It’s a difficult situation due to the previous mis-Management that the present regime need to find a way through.
And what sort of message does it send out if we sell our Golden Boot winning Top Scorer?
The year of transition we believe Emery would have is likely to be at least another 2-3.
And the blame for the lack of funds rests solely on Emery not achieving CL Football when it seemed easier to get third place than the fifth place he eventually got.We are down at least £100m in funds due to Prize Money,Additional revenue and Sponsorship.Makes that Xhaka penalty against Brighton an expensive push.
Phil, I dont know where you get the information that Emery will be coaching Arsenal for at least a further 2-3 years? Emery has a contract to the end of the 2019/20 season, with Arsenal apparently having the option to extend.
If missing the Champions League is supposedly worth £50 million per season and Emery has been at the Emirates for 1 season, how is it his fault that Arsenal has missed out on £100 million in revenue?
The bulk of this squad has now failed two well respected credentialled managers, in Wenger and Emery, over the last three seasons. Their performance in gaining 4 points from a possible 18 from the last 6 games, followed by their abject performance in the Europa League final was a disgrace to the shirt and their professional pride as footballers.
If the Board do not support Emery does anyone seriously believe that a coach/manager of his age and experience will waste his time at Arsenal? At the end of his contract there will be plenty suitors for his signature.
With regard to selling Aubameyang, how does anyone expect Arsenal to replace his goals, particularly as stated above, should Lacazette be injured?
Arsenal left Highbury and built the Emirates at great cost, on the promise that the Club would be competing, not only for the EPL title, but with the top clubs in Europe. The big question is, where the money (previous Champions League income, TV deals, corporate sponsorships, matchday attendance and merchandising) gone?
Arsenal now have to sell their most valuable assets to strengthen other areas of the squad, yet will be outspent by the likes of Wolves,Everton and West Ham. Something is obviously “rotten at the Emirates, if not in Denmark.”
OG-yes I was a little contradictory in what I wrote.Emery will not be here after this season if he fails to get us CL football.Of that I am sure.Snd his 2 year contract ending means we can just let him go with no payout.
However I disagree on a couple of points you make.Third Place was there for the taking and yet our abysmal form at the end of the season cost us the CL place.The £100m (Which is an estimate) comes from the guaranteed £60m for getting out of the group stages (never I gimme I know and especially as we would likely be a third seed in the group) in addition to the attendance/Consessions/extra ticket costs (AFC charge me approx £200 less for my ticket in an EL season than CL).Thats over £10m in gate money alone.
Who else decided on the midfield pairing of Elneny and Guendouzi in not one but TWO games that we were totally outclassed in.Deciding to continually not play our four best players week after week until it was too late.Then with Ramsey getting injured we were unable to see an improvement on the played five won five record they had.Thats not rocket science OG.Play your best players and you tend to win more games.
As a supposed COACH that had a dossier on each player at the club and how he would improve their own and the teams collective performances he somehow made us look worst at times than we did in Wengers last season.It was only the home performances against the other Top 5 clubs that kept us living in hope as long S we did.We had just as worst performances away as we did under Wenger.West Ham Southampton Brighton Wolves Leicester Everton.We picked up ONE POINT from those games.That is not improvement.Palace Away.Turned a winning performance into one point.Very fortunate to get that single point at Brighton.That is not improvement in my mind by a supposed COACH.And it is those performances that have prevented us from another £100m to bolster the Transfer kitty.
Phil, it was still improvement on the the previous season by a coach in his first season in the EPL. In all honesty how well did Guardiola or Klopp do in their first seasons and how much did they spend in comparison?
Also in 57 years of following Arsenal, I can’t remember a season with so many severe injuries to players, particularly defenders.
My question remains, where has the money gone?
Silent Stan doesn’t help things by, as sole owner of the Club, not providing his vision of what he expects of and for the Arsenal.
OG-I still need Emery to convince me he is the man for the job.At the same time Raul needs to convince everyone as to why he is in such an elevated position.The loss of Sven M was down to Raul so you would like to think there was a plan B whereas at the moment I’m struggling to understand plan A.
I cannot believe the Transfer kitty is as low as being reported but the next 6 weeks will tell us all we need to know.
You are not going to have 30 years golden boot forever otherwise you can repeat same mistakes as Ozil and common sense should take a driving seat here not just candle to a big name
He’s been here 18 months and smashed goals left right and centre ,why any fan would want him sold is beyond me .
Do you think the club will invest that money and put it to good use ?
If you go by a joint interview Venk/Raul they made clear this time they will be smart on transfer and player who has two years left they are going to sell or extend contract and in Auba case you don’t need to be clever if you mean business he will be 31 years old soon just recoup what you paid and reinvest extend his contract and increase his wage plus Ozil being around the situation will get worse
Agree with you Xxnofx. As for Kev saying he couldn’t lace RVP’s boots, Auba’s scoring so far 2 goals every 3 games more or less identical to Thierry’s compared RVP’s 1 every 2
Number 1 is just silly. If we didn’t have Auba we’ll be begging to spend crazy money to get him. But we have him and yet you want us to sell him? What sort of reasoning is that?
Good reasons. But Arsenal sold Henry, Fabregas, Hleb, Vieira, Clichy, Van Persie, Cole, Nasri and Song, then used the money unwisely on Xhaka, Ozil and Mustafi
Liverpool also spent wrongly on Carroll, Crouch, Karius, Mignolet and Bellamy. Whereas Tottenham bought the wrong players in Soldado, Van Der Vaart, etc
We could get around 10 – 15 M profit by selling our best goalscorer, but they need to be careful when buying a new player next time
I guess the whole of Arsenal board will be confused on this issue, as for me I rather we keep him, we can all see how electrified him and Laca were last season, replacing him with an inexperience striker will be suicidal, apart from lacazette hard working, energetic and dribble abilities, Auba is far more better than him at the from of the goal, imagine if we didn’t have him this past season ,do u think Laca goals alone will make us finished at 5th position. we need that dude more this coming season
If Auba was better as you try to make of it we will be in champion league now he missed those simple sitters including a penalty when we played totenham sell him and bring in 3 more younger players what most people don’t understand here a team is not a single player and Ajax proved that Auba is finished he can’t go past any player on one on one situation any more when he turns 31 and in huge contract while he can’t perform Will be Ozil situation allover again but the current regime they are smarter than that keep declining player means losing money and you can blame Kroenke as much as you want but the main problem in the past was Wenger
Selling Aubameyang would not be a good idea, you can’t sell your best players and expect instant success. If we don’t have money to sign players then just promote our young players to add to the first team set up. I believe our problem last season was our lack of wingers and that can be quite solved with Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe and Saka give these young players consecutive games with the first team and they will unlock greatness
Finally someone who understands the whole picture, the time to unfortunately sell auba is now and invest the money in weak areas. If you really want to push it, you sell ozil, mustafi and elneny as well. You are discarding dead woods, freeing up wages and with good scouting you may get better impact players . this may be our only kiss of life.
If the rumours are true (big if) that PEA wants ManU then give him his wish and use the 70-80m to help sign a young CB,RB and winger. 120m gets Tierney and Anderson whilst leaving 60m for a winger to pair with Nelson. That plus a new contract and more starts should keep Lacazette happy.
The real issue with auba is that at 30yrs old, how do you extend his contract and increase his 180k per week wages. This is an Europa league club paying champions league wages to big players. You give bigger contracts to plays at 26/27yrs not the ones turning 31 soon.
I know we need money but i don’t think we can afford to sell Aubameyang now when the likes of Ozil, Mustafi, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Jenkinson and Mkhi are still in the team. We have to do everything possible to sell those first even at significant losses then we can analyse where we are. Aubameyang should be given a two year extension on the same wage he’s on right now, no increase.
“The forward line is not the greatest area of concern” It soon will be if we get rid of our top goalscorer, just saying.
Are you club’s accountant or are you part of the Arsenal’s board ? Well you are neither , you are a fan and as a fan you should know this , with simple calculations of sponser money and tv money you will see that Arsenal has money , FFP and wages are just excuses by the board not to spend money , either Kroenke is really smart or our fans are too gullible because fans are now believing we have less money than teams that have finished lower than us , so Kroenke can take money from Arsenal every season till the time we actually not gonna have any money anymore and at that time we can say goodbye to PL , and dont give me the stupid argument of money spent on Xhaka and Mustafi and etc , because that is NOTHING compared to the money Arsenal has made every season , except the last 2 seasons we have been in champions league every season yet there have been summers that our only purchase has been a finished Cech , yet all the pathetic reporters are saying we dont have money because of not quallifying for CL yet we didnt buy much when were in CL , and fans are accepting it while also paying for the most expensive ticket prices. All we have to do is to get Kroenke out of the club. #kroenkeout
@futureman ??????I have been saying this for a while now .My jersey will be having kroenke out from start of season
Where has the money gone? All those years in the Champions League.
Arsenal left Highbury and spent a fortune to build the Emirates with the promise that not only would arsenal compete for the EPL title, but also compete with the owers in European football.
The supporters have been sold a lie; Arsenal can’t even compete with Everton, Wolves and West Ham United in the transfer market!
Not qualifying for the CL is just one symptom, losing a quarter of a BILLION in five years in transfer business is another, having a huge wage bill another and so on. So, no, you do not need to be an accountant to work out what went wrong. But it does help to look at the whole picture and not just one part before you make an assumption. Arsenal will soon post a £50 Million loss, they have no CL money coming in, huge stadium debt interest to service and still lumbered with one of the highest wage bills so they do not have money as you seem to believe.
This reply was meant for the article not for aMoistMuffin.
I was a bit taken back reading your comment then i seen you said it was a response to the article haha. i completely agree with you by the way ?
Thanks you bro,they don’t have much to spend like they said.. Then why not bring in Reiss Nelson,& Emile smith…then sale monreal,jackenson buy Tierney sale ozil,elney by zeyich and get Ramsey replacement and get saliba too case close,but they keep making it difficult.
Van Persie was also 30yo when he led Man utd to the title
without RVP that season, Utd would have relegated or finish outside top 12
that’s fake issue when we sell Auba it will happen like last time we sell fabregas with no seriuose replacement.Lets use that 40m for a central defence&leftback then they promote those the like of RIESS NELSON N;KEITA X,VIER AMEACHI & ETC they will learnt more from the big name not selling the top.
Arsenal owner of the club should think that at one point fans also need to be happy but not him making money and yet fans are suffering because of the love for the club, please spend money buy Wilfred zaha to pair with lacazeete and Auboumeyang,then midfield needs one player,even defence needs one player because Holding and meveraphanos are their good defenders,we need good attacking which is not dull in front,play Wilfred zaha,lacazate,Emerick, in front then mhikitarian,or ozil number ten then Torreira, and xshaka or bring Niles in number six because Bellerin is back and those young boys will be dangerous substitutes.
I don’t think Aubameyang will deteriorate as badly and rapidly as Ozil did when he hit 30. Renew him so that he can stay till he is 34. I feel Aubameyang can remain a top striker for that long. He can give as 4 more great seasons. We just have to make them count.
He has one top season left in him. Once his body tells him its over, he will essentially be finished. He definitely won’t make it to 34 and be able to dominate EPL. Very few strikers get to that age and are able to.
Our wage bill is huge, we sign mediocre players over the years (except last year when we signed Auba, Laca, Leno, Torrera), let players move for free/pittance thereby consuming our funds.Never the less Auba should be given a revised contract with performance based bonuses rather than an one with inflated wages. As regards to his age, he will still be premium for next 3-4 years like Zalten Ibra., and with Zaha & Teirney supposedly to join us, we can be top 3 coming season.We need not sell him, Eddie is too unreliable and we may end up scouting someone from league 2 or Turkey. We are not Liverpool to spend wisely and balance the team, hence lets forget selling Auba.
While I appreciate your reasoning Martin,a revolution cannot begin until we clear the decks of the debris which is sinking our ship.The debris is made up of 6/7 players who are no longer good enough for Arsenal and who are the reason for lack of success during the past 3/4 seasons.There is no point in weakening an area where we are relatively strong,until we have strengthened the area/s where we are decidedly weak.
If Arsenal sell Aubameyang to Man U then Emery should resign out of principle as I will too!
Declan, so right; I can’t see Emery staying if not supported by the Board. This coming season could be crutial to the future of Arsenal; an aging squad, with no saleable assets, frustrated young players looking for first team opportunities elsewhere and a coach, not renewing his contract and moving on.
I totally agree. I remember fans saying same thing about Ozil. Many wanted Ozil contract renewed, but now that it has backfired, they are all blaming the board. People let emotions and sentiments becloud their rationality.
Auba salary as it stands is already burning a hole down our pocket. Renewing and increasing his salary and years will be pure madness. Auba won’t get better, he will deteriorate.
He is no Ronaldo or Messi. He doesn’t have that type of discipline to keep his body that fit. You all have forgotten that his indiscipline was part of the reasons he left Dortmund.
If we don’t sell Aubameyang this season, we will regret it like we regretted not selling Ozil then. You don’t correct your past mistakes by repeating them.
If we don’t sell Aubameyang at the end of this transfer season, I will know that we have learnt no lessons as a club from our current conundrum, consequently, our sufferings will continue.
he has a two years contract. if we extend it will be 3-4 years, and he will want a pay raise to more than 200K. he is super fast which means he will get much worse in 1-2 years. so we might end up with another Ozil. if we can get 85-90m for him I think it would be a good deal. or get from United Martial+50m would be a great deal. anyway, if we can use the money to get 2-3 good players that will go straight into our starting 11, it would more than compensate for his goals. and if Emry gets the players he wants he will switch to 4-3-3 so Laca plus a young striker would be enough as we wont be at the CL.
No to selling one of our best player.QED
If selling Auba is to raise funds to buy his equal that is fine. But I want to know, it me only thinking that ALL Arsenal players are under valued? Imagine Zaha >£80m, Auba: we are like we want to recoup what we paid to Dortimond. Ozil <£30m; even it is for [his] age and wage demand, we always under value our young prospects. May be someone will say the law of supply & demand dictates that…. I think we should also match our bargain power to others