Arsenal fans can’t wait for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to sign for their club, and they are not alone.
With the transfer saga dragging on, even Borussia Dortmund fans are becoming impatient for the striker to leave.
Aubameyang has scored 141 goals for Dortmund. He has been their undisputed superstar in recent years. Bundesliga top scorer last season, his goals this term have been invaluable for a team in transition.
Borussia Dortmund fans are becoming evermore impatient with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Yet there are some Dortmund fans who have had enough; enough of the flirtations with other clubs, enough of the constant disregard for internal rules, and enough of the clashes with the club’s hierarchy.
‘We fans are fed up with the constant disquiet. Barely anyone talks about the football at Dortmund any more,’ wrote one disgruntled fan in FOCUS magazine this week.
‘If the club bosses don’t act quickly, they will lose respect and authority.’
Not all Dortmund fans will agree with him, but there will be many who share the frustration.
However valuable Aubameyang’s goals, his behaviour in the last few months has left a bitter taste which is now impossible for both players and fans to ignore.
At a club where the top brass retain at least something of a mandate from their members, it is something CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and sporting director Michael Zorc will be acutely aware of.
It is also the reason that, having repeatedly backed their controversial striker in the past, have publicly criticised him in recent weeks.
‘Sporting dirctor Michael Zorc will be only too aware of the opinions of players and fans
His fellow players have played a part in that. Increasingly irritated at the long leash on which Aubameyang is kept, they have reportedly raised concerns with the board.
There has also been criticism from outside the club. The likes of Jupp Heynckes and Eintracht Frankfurt coach Niko Kovac have argued that Aubameyang’s behaviour cannot be tolerated, while Matthias Sammer has warned Arsenal that ‘a rotten apple’ doesn’t suddenly change when he goes to a different club.
There are many, in short, who will be happy to see the back of Aubameyang. The problem for Dortmund is that the team need his goals.
In the last two games, Aubameyang has been left out of the squad, and his team mates scored a grand total of one goal against lower mid-table opponents Wolfsburg and Hertha Berlin.
Even in this term, where his relationship with the squad and the club has deteriorated rapidly, Aubameyang has netted 21 times in all competitions.
Despite his talent, young Swedish striker Alexander Isak is not an adequate replacement for a club in a bitter battle for a Champions League spot.
With talk of Olivier Giroud being part of a swap deal with Arsenal, Dortmund will hope that they can bring in the kind of experience and quality which can at least plug a hole while they search for a long-term replacement.
Giroud may lack Aubameyang’s pace, but he is also an accomplished poacher, and will make the best of good service from Christian Pulisic, Jadon Sancho and others.
The 28-year-old striker is renowned for his flamboyant lifestyle and taste for the high life
Yet those young players will undoubtedly suffer in Aubameyang’s absence. His sharp movement and pace constantly kept defenders occupied, relieving the pressure on other, less experienced forwards. Giroud, or a similar replacement, will not be able to play that role.
And it is not just on the field where Aubameyang’s loss will be felt. Dortmund are used to losing their top players to bigger clubs, but with the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ousmane Dembele and Aubameyang all leaving under a cloud of controversy in recent years, the turnover is getting faster, and the atmosphere ever more bitter.
Die Welt described Dortmund as ‘a feeder club, a kind of Freiburg for the whole of Europe.’ Others, meanwhile, have prophesied dark days ahead for the whole of German football.
‘The danger is that these aren’t individual cases, but a fundamental threat to the Bundesliga,’ wrote former SportBild editor Alfred Draxler this month. ‘The big stars are walking away from us!’
It is certainly true that the Bundesliga has pinned a lot of its international publicity on individuals such as Aubameyang and Robert Lewandowski in recent years.
Even if Olivier Giroud were to move, he doesn’t quite bring the same appeal to the Bundesliga
When those stars leave, there are many who will fear for the attractiveness of the Bundesliga as a whole. Olivier Giroud and Sandro Wagner just don’t have quite the same sex appeal.
Yet, in football and otherwise, talk of the end of days is often exaggerated. For Dortmund, Aubameyang’s value as a personality and, more importantly, as a footballer, is now outweighed by the unrest he has caused both on and off the pitch in recent weeks.
Brilliant, exhilarating and thoroughly good fun though it was to watch him bang in the goals in recent years, most in Germany would agree that it is now time for him to move on.