sport news Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang weighs up Chelsea switch trends now
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Sometimes no matter what you do, it’s never going to be enough. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored 11 goals in 13 league starts after joining Barcelona last January – his reward was for the club to sign Robert Lewandowski.
You can see it from Barcelona’s point of view – Lewandowski is an upgrade in terms of season-after-season consistency, but it’s still hard on the Gabon striker who did pretty much everything right at Barcelona last season including score twice at the Bernabeu as Barça beat Real Madrid 4-0.
If Aubameyang’s form tailed off slightly in the last games it was understandable – the club did nothing but talk up the expected arrival of his replacement. And Lewandowski is very much Aubameyang’s replacement, there can be little doubt about that.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shone at Barcelona in the second half of last season
The club have since signed Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, though
The Pole is coming to play every game. He is not going to be happy if he’s rested so that Aubameyang can stay sharp.
And at this stage of his career the 33-year-old forward is not the same force when shifted out wide to accommodate a new centre-forward, he needs to be the team’s number nine to be at his best.
The degree to which Chelsea are driving the pursuit of Aubameyang has be judged against the backdrop of Barcelona’s desperation to sell any player to them, in part because it will help them lever Cesar Azpilicueta out of the club and to the Camp Nou.
They want Chelsea to buy Frenkie De Jong, and having originally offered them Memphis Depay and failed to provoke interest they would be happy to send them Aubameyang even if Xavi likes the idea of having the Gabon international on call if his main front man picks up an injury.
