Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has claimed that Pierre Emerick Aubameyang forced his way out of the club and joined Arsenal during the January transfer window.
Arsene Wenger had tried to sign the Gabon International a couple of times in the past but the French manager finally succeeded in getting his man this past week. Aubameyang made his debut against Everton this weekend and immediately put his name on the scoresheet.
But according to Joachim Watzke, the striker “withheld performances” in order to move out of Germany and join the Emirates outfit.
The Dortmund CEO told FAZ: “On Thursday, I laid it on the line for the squad — the next player who does something like that will fail miserably,
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“He’ll run into major problems. The next player who tries to put us under pressure by withholding performances or even going on strike will not get a pass and will instead sit in the stands.
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“They are all aware of it. This is now a public statement. Following Dembele and Aubameyang, there is now an overriding interest for the club — we need to get a better structure into our squad again.
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“Aubameyang committed himself to us for this season, especially as a reaction to Dembele’s transfer.
“But he also had the notion that we owed to him because in 2016 he opted for us and decided against very lucrative offers amid the exits of [Mats] Hummels, [Ilkay] Gundogan and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan.”
