Arsene Wenger Offers Update On Arsenal’s Attempts To Sign £60m Star

The January transfer window is in full swing so clubs are working hard trying to strengthen their squads for the second half of the season and put deals in place for the summer. Today, the latest on Arsenal’s pursuit of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang…

Arsene Wenger says Arsenal are still not close to striking a deal to sign Borussia Dortmund hitman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but insists Olivier Giroud won’t leave unless a replacement if found, according to the Mirror.

The boss is looking to strengthen his attacking options before the end of the month after losing Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott and Aubameyang has emerged as a top target.

We’ve been locked in talks with Dortmund this week after chief executive Ivan Gazidis, lawyer Huss Fahmy and head scout Sven Mislintat flew-out to Germany last weekend to thrash out a deal.

The Mirror claim our opening £44m offer was immediately rejected while a second bid worth in the region of £50m has also fallen short of Dortmund’s £60m valuation of Aubameyang.

Speculation suggests the Bundesliga club are growing frustrated with the lack of progress being made in negotiations and have threatened to play the striker this weekend if a breakthrough isn’t found.

When quizzed for an update on Arsenal’s pursuit of the Gabon international this morning, Wenger says we are still no nearer to reaching an agreement but hinted there is still time for a deal to be struck.

Wenger is quoted as saying by the Mirror:

“I cannot tell you more. We’ve nothing to announce today and at the moment we stay where we are.

“We have added [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, lost Alexis and our squad is stable. If anything else happens I’d say I don’t know. It’s still possible but we’re far from being close.”

There has been talk of Olivier Giroud being used as a makeweight in any deal with the French international possibly joining Dortmund on loan for the rest of the season.

However, Wenger insists he wants the 31-year-old to stay and will only sanction his departure if a replacement [Aubameyang] is secured. Wenger continued:

“I want Olivier to stay. I just told you if nobody comes in nobody goes out.

“Maybe one or two young players out on loan somewhere. Experienced side of the squad will remain the same unless someones comes in.”

Giroud has struggled to secure regular game-time this season having started just 1 Premier League game and he needs to be playing first team football ahead of the World Cup finals.

Therefore, the striker could be open to the idea of moving to Dortmund as part of the Aubameyang transfer so some form of swap deal could make sense for all parties.

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We’ll have to wait and see how things develop over the coming days but it looks like our pursuit of Aubameyang is going to go right down to the wire so I wouldn’t be surprised if the deal drags until deadline day.