It was reported yesterday that both Barcelona and Juventus made ‘formal approaches’ to sign Aubameyang on loan until the end of the season.
Juventus are said to be trying to keep hold of ex-Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata who they currently have on loan. Barca are apparently chasing Morata, so if Juventus lose him they will go after Aubameyang. Similarly, if they manage to keep him it’s thought that Barcelona may go after Aubameyang themselves. However, with all of Aubameyang’s baggage, and with just a couple of days left of the window, any loan deal will need to be tied up very quickly.
Aubameyang is more than a little out of favour, having been dropped from the matchday squad and left behind while the rest of the squad, and Jack Wilshere jet off for a warm-weather training camp in Dubai. The club will be keen to offload Aubameyang and his colossal wages of around £350,000 a week and try and bring in someone a bit cheaper before the end of the window (you’d hope!).
There is still said to be a chance of signing Arthur Melo from Juventus, so Aubameyang could be used as a makeweight to get that deal across the line. It’s thought that Juve want to loan him to us for 18 months, while we only want him for 6, so perhaps the Auba deal could smooth over the difference.
Rumours around today claim that Eddie Nketiah could be a target for Newcastle, which, if Aubameyang goes, would leave us with Lacazette and Balogun, the latter is on loan at Middlesborough and the former might as well be, given his goalscoring return.
Our squad is now down to bare bones with players having left now being Maitland-Niles (loan to Roma), Mari (loan to Udinese), Balogun (loan to Middlesbrough), Chambers (free to Aston Villa!) and Kolasinac (free to Marseille).
