Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had yet another fantastic season with Borussia Dortmund and unsurprisingly, the Dortmund fans are in for a tough time in the coming few weeks as their star player is going to be linked with quite a few top European clubs.
Dortmund, despite winning the DFB Cup, were in a bit of a turmoil as they sacked their manager Thomas Tuchel just a day after ending their title wait. Although the board reacted quickly and hired Peter Bosz who had a good spell at Ajax, the departure of Tuchel, who was a pretty cerebral manager and was the heir apparent to Klopp, means their stars’ futures are uncertain.
The latest club to join the list of Aubameyang admirers are Liverpool, with a rumoured £61m move. Although it’s a bit surprising to see the Reds being linked with a player of his calibre, with Klopp at the help, you can’t rule the club out as they can attract any star name.
Yet, it’s a bit far-fetched…
The story was first reported by La Parisien and has been rubbished by quite a few pundits simply because of the magnitude of the money involved. Although the club are due a major signing – which is obvious when Andy Carroll is still at the top of the list of most money spent on a player – attempting to sign someone like Aubameyang with the wage restrictions that they have in place seems like a pipe-dream.
The likes of PSG and Real Madrid can afford to buy players without having to worry about the wage bill. And having played for a powerhouse club in Germany who are still contending for titles, you’d reckon that he’d want to move to a club where he is guaranteed of trophies rather than having to wait and be part of a project whose final chapter is to eventually win silverware.
If Aubameyang ultimately moves to Liverpool, it would be a fascinating scenario as they already have a pretty impressive attack. His inclusion would easily guarantee 20 to 25 goals more and make them title contenders for next season. Having played under Klopp and then Tuchel, he will also have almost zero acclimatisation time at the club.
Aubameyang is 28 now and he’s a striker who uses his pace to beat defenders and then shows brilliant composure in front of goal. Now, his dominant abilities degrade with age and he isn’t really a player who can adapt his game and play as a withdrawn striker as he doesn’t have a good pass on him. That basically means his next move will have to be to a club where his chances of winning medals will be the maximum, and Liverpool, based on what we’ve witnessed in the past decade or so, sadly aren’t that club.
