Arsenal will need to sort out the future of their most prized possession, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as soon as possible, that’s according to Martin Keown.
The ex-Gunners thinks, Mikel Arteta cannot let this whole transfer saga roll into the 2020-21 season, primarily since the Premier League outfit need urgent money to rebuild their squad.
“I don’t think he will[sign a new deal]. I think he’ll leave with a heavy heart,” former Gunners defender Keown told talkSPORT, via Goal.
“I think he’s the nearest thing I have seen to Thierry Henry at the football club and the club will have to make swift decisions. They can’t allow what happened a few years ago with the transfers just going on and on. The club needs direction.
“It’s a real concern for Arsenal, recently with [Mesut] Ozil, they lost [Aaron] Ramsey, they lost [Alexis] Sanchez. We’re hearing now that, unlike [Unai] Emery who wasn’t involved apparently in the Ramsey situation, him leaving, he’s [Arteta] getting involved.
“I think the message needs to be to the player ‘look, we can’t have you captaining the club if there’s uncertainty around your contract’, in the last year of his contract, that can’t be allowed to happen.
“Whether you keep him, whether you don’t, that all depends on the monetary side. What are they going to get? What are the offers? Because they do need to look at it and what it means to them to break into the Champions League, to maybe challenge for a Premier League.
“So if they’re only going to get an offer of £20m-£30m then you have to consider whether you’re going to keep him there or not and whether the player has got the mental capacity to stay, but he can’t be captain because the message is the wrong one to the rest of the group. So there are lots of building for Arteta to do.”
Will Arsenal hold onto Aubameyang?
Some rumours claim that the Arsenal manager is ready to hold onto Aubameyang for one more season if the interested clubs are not ready to offer him the right transfer price.
While we think this a bold, as well as risky move but Mikel Arteta, will go ahead and implement it during the course of the upcoming transfer window.
There’s no way the Spanish boss will be ready to sell the Gabon international for prices ranging from 30million to 40million pounds. The Arsenal manager would much rather use Aubameyang next season and get back into the Champions League.
Also, if the Gunners hold onto Aubameyang then the club will not have to spend money on bringing in a new forward this summer meaning Arteta can use that money for other arrivals.
All in all, the situation that Arsenal are in right now is no less than a double-edged sword so whichever way the manager tips, there’s bound to be major backlash and criticism.
