GiveMeSport
·20 January 2023
GiveMeSport
·20 January 2023
Chelsea may be beginning to have doubts over the future of striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with Graham Potter’s squad at Stamford Bridge, talkSPORT reporterAlex Crook has told GiveMeSport.
The former Arsenal star only signed for the Blues at the end of the summer transfer window, but his time in west London could already be in jeopardy.
Chelsea signed Aubameyang for a fee of £10.3m in September, when former manager Thomas Tuchel was in charge at Stamford Bridge.
The German head coach was then sacked just a few days later before being replaced by Graham Potter, who has struggled to get the best out of the 33-year-old during his time with the Premier League giants.
According to AS, Aubameyang is reportedly unhappy in west London and wants to return to Barcelona, however, The Telegraph reports that the La Liga club fear a move will be blocked, with Spanish rules stating that if a player has their license cancelled by a club, they can’t regain it in the same season.
Journalist Simon Phillips has recently told GiveMeSport that Aubameyang is frustrated with life at Stamford Bridge and is now eager to return to Spain.
And Crook believes that “there has to be” doubts over Aubameyang’s Chelsea future, with the striker being unable to make much of an impact during his time at the club.
When asked if there could be any uncertainty over Aubameyang’s time at Chelsea, Crook told GiveMeSport: “I think there has to be because he’s not made any kind of impact. I’d imagine that Chelsea are encountering the same sort of problems that Arsenal had. Maybe his attitude isn’t spot on.”
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Aubameyang – who was once described as “phenomenal” by Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta – has endured an underwhelming campaign with Chelsea so far, having hit the back of the net just three times and provided one assist in 16 appearances, according to Transfermarkt.
The £160k-per-week earner has earned himself a below-par WhoScored rating of 6.18 for his displays in the Premier League this season, ranking him as the second-lowest performing player in the squad.
However, the 73-cap former Gabon international does compare favourably in comparison to his positional peers, ranking in the top 7% of forwards across Europe’s big five leagues as well as the Champions League and Europa League for non-penalty goals scored per 90 minutes (0.62) over the last 365 days, as per FBref.
But it does seem that, with Chelsea spending almost £89m to sign Shakhtar Donetsk and Ukraine winger Mykhaylo Mudryk, the club could look to offload some of their underperforming and older players to free up some space on the wage bill.
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