The January transfer window is open for business, but so far there hasn’t been a ton of real huge significant action to speak of. That doesn’t gel with the tabloids of course! According to the back pages, there is always not just smoke, but also fire, regardless of how cool it might actually be.
Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been the subject of plenty of hot transfer rumors; some linking him with a big money move to Real Madrid. The 30-year-old says there is no there there in regards to these narratives.
He used the the club’s official match day program, for today’s 1-0 win over Leeds United in the FA Cup third round, to get his point across. He called these stories made up, and articulated his commitment to being a key leadership figure at Arsenal FC.
“I would also like to react to some of the rumors that are going around about me in the media,” said the man with a 4 year / £32,760,000 contract that ends in 2021.
“People like making up stories and they should focus on what’s happening on the pitch. They talk too much and it does my head in.
“I am the Arsenal captain. I love this club. I am committed to it and desperate to bring it back to the top, where it belongs.”
Aubameyang takes home a reported weekly wage of £200,000, and usually players of this pay grade only move in the summer, not in January. A big reason for that is the selling club would then go looking for a suitable replacement; and those kinds of players are just harder to find in January.
In other words, the idea of Aubameyang leaving right now just doesn’t past the smell test right now, especially given the state that the north London club currently finds themselves in. That said, never say never and anything could happen; maybe.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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