Ray Parlour believes Arsenal won’t stand a chance of returning to the Premier League top-four without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
It’s no secret Arsenal are desperate to tie Aubameyang down to a new contract as the skipper has less than a year left on his current deal.
Barcelona, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and Chelsea have all been linked to him in the last several months. However, Mikel Arteta remains confident of keeping his star man for next season.
The Gunners boss reiterated this once more following the club’s 2-1 FA Cup final win over Chelsea, where both goals came courtesy of Aubameyang.
But while Arsenal have released no further updates on how contract talks are shaping up, the Gabonese recently teased on social media that an announcement on his future is imminent.
The question is how much are Arsenal willing to pay to convince Aubameyang to sign a new contract?
“You can’t replace those goals that he scores,” Parlour told talkSPORT. “The signs are positive that he might stay, which would be great news.
❌ Alan: “If Aubameyang goes then forget top four, for me.”
🙏 Ray: “Yeah, you can’t replace his goals… but the signs are positive!”
Alan Brazil & Ray Parlour say #Arsenal’s future hangs on Aubameyang staying the The Emirates.
Do you think Auba will stay? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ADheJ44ULx
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 21, 2020
“I see the relationship with the manager which is so important. You can see when the final whistle went against Chelsea – Arteta straight over to Aubameyang. I know he scored the two goals but you can see that the relationship is pretty good.
“It’s going to come down to money, what are you going to have to pay him?”
The former Arsenal midfielder added: “The problem is we’ve got [Mesut] Ozil sitting on £350,000-a-week and Aubameyang’s going to say ‘I want the same’.
“His representatives can say ‘wait a minute, there’s a player out there who is not even playing so we want 350-a-week’. Whether that can do a deal at 250 or 275, I think that’s what they will be aiming for.
“If he does leave, there aren’t enough goals around the team to get anywhere near the top four.”
Aubameyang has managed 70 goals and 15 assists in 109 appearances for Arsenal since his club-record €63.75m arrival from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018.
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