Aubameyang now laughing at Arsenal after £55m mistake
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 19 Jan 2022 18:14 GMT
- 3 min read
Earlier this season, Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy at the North London club.
Despite his occasional brilliance on the pitch, Aubameyang was seen as a strange choice by then manager Unai Emery to become the new club captain in November of 2019.
The Gabon international was and still is a maverick, but his highlight reel has often been overshadowed by disciplinary problems.
And the latest problem will be the most costly, not just to Aubameyang himself but to Arsenal too.
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After an incident believed to be involving timekeeping, Arteta made the decision to take the captaincy off the player, but also to exile from first-team training and matchday squads.
Aubameyang's absence coincided with an upturn un form for the Gunners, and it now seems like Arteta has made up his mind that his former captain won't play for him again.
The saga has received a break over the last couple of weeks due to the Africa Cup of Nations, but that has swiftly been brought to an end after the former Borussia Dortmund striker was sent back to the Emirates after being diagnosed with heart lesions.
Arsenal are now treating a player on a £55 million three-year contract who will likely never don the red and white again.
What is Aubameyang's overall cost to Arsenal?
Yes, the above figure is indeed correct.
Aubameyang was already a high-earner at Arsenal following his £55m move from Dortmund, but in September of 2020 he became one of the highest paid players in the world when he was given a lucrative new deal worth a reported £350,000 per week.
He would receive a basic wage of £250,000 per week which is made up to £350,000 through add-ons.
Since his first appearance in the 2021/22 campaign, he has earned just over £8m from the club, and returned just four Premier League goals.
Since signing his bumper new deal, he has returned just 16 league goals, and in that time has earned over £25m in wages and bonuses.
Aubameyang's Arsenal career, undoubtedly, started to go downhill after he received this contract so it isn't outrageous to hypothesis that the player has simply sat on his laurels, full in the knowledge that crazy amounts of money will arrive in his bank account every month.
