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Premier League • England

Arsenal transfer decision in further focus as experienced star’s ‘gift’ claim hints at mistake

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang prior to a Barcelona match

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been a “gift” for Barcelona, according to one of their senior players – which may raise further questions of the transfer decision Arsenal made.

Aubameyang left Arsenal for Barcelona earlier this month on a free transfer. It came after he lost the club captaincy for his latest discipline issue in December. He never played for the club again, later citing an issue with Mikel Arteta.

His exit deprived Arsenal of a striker who had scored 92 goals in 163 games for them. There have been concerns since about the future of their attack.

Although the Gabon international was not in the best of form last season, he did get seven goals from 15 games in his final half-a-year with Arsenal. Now, though, they can call on him no longer.

Barcelona are instead benefitting from the talents of the 32-year-old, who scored a hat-trick against Valencia in a 4-1 win on Sunday. They were his first goals for his new club.

In the process, he earned the admiration of veteran midfielder Sergio Busquets, who thinks Aubameyang was lacking gametime in the last chapter of his Arsenal career and has been a gift for the La Liga giants.

Busquets told Movistar+ (via Goal): “He’s working really well. He came here needing minutes but he is getting them now.

“I hope he helps us like this because he is a great player and having him in the squad on a free transfer is a gift.”

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Amid financial difficulties, Barcelona have had to rely largely on free transfers in the past two windows. In the summer, they took Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia and Memphis Depay on those terms; Dani Alves followed in mid-season.

Aguero has since had to retire, which is part of the reason why adding Aubameyang in his place was a useful move.

Morata could replace Aubameyang

Arsenal, for their part, will need to find attacking reinforcements of their own in the summer. Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are out of contract at the end of the season, so could follow Aubameyang out as free agents.

Reports last week named Alvaro Morata as one striker who could fill the void at Arsenal.

One man the Gunners previously wanted was Dusan Vlahovic, but Juventus got there ahead of them for one of Europe’s most highly-rated forwards.

Vlahovic has subsequently overtaken Morata in the Juventus pecking order while the Spaniard sees out the second year of his loan from Atletico Madrid. As such, his transfer there at the end of the season is now in doubt.

According to Tuttomercatoweb, Arsenal are admirers of Morata. Indeed, they could try to hijack his transfer to Juventus.

The Serie A side can make the move permanent for a fee of €35m. Atletico are willing to sell since they have no place in their own plans for the Spaniard.

However, given a recent decline in form, Juventus are not keen on paying the full value of Morata’s clause. With Vlahovic now their main man, their plans for the ex-Chelsea man are changing.

They would still like to keep him around, but only as a backup. And they would only want to commit to a transfer fee that represents that.

There are doubts as to whether Atleti would accept, though. Arsenal are still in contention for the permanent Morata transfer and may make a better offer.

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