On the latest episode of The View from the Lane podcast, The Athletic journalists Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Maw and Charlie Eccleshare have been discussing the latest on-goings at the North London club and this included a discussion about Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
In his recent article for The Athletic, written along with Jack Lang, Eccleshare named the Gabonese striker as someone who Spurs considered signing not too long ago. This led to a discussion of the 31-year-old on the most recent episode of the View from the Lane podcast, as the trio contemplated some of Spurs’ ‘failed signings’ from recent years.
Maw offered his opinion on the potential signing of the former Borussia Dortmund man, saying:
“Some of the more recent ones, there’s a mention of Aubameyang under AVB in Charlie’s piece – probably would’ve kept Kane out of the team. He obviously would have been a great signing and he can play out wide as well, but you just think, the way things have worked out over the last four or five years, I don’t think I really would regret many of the ones in that time, purely on the basis of just thinking about how it would have changed what has happened since.”
TIF Thoughts…
Arsenal brought Aubameyang to the Premier League in January 2018 for a fee of £57.38 million from Borussia Dortmund (per Transfermarkt). Since then, he has gone on to make 98 appearances for the Gunners, contributing an impressive 61 goals and 13 assists (per Transfermarkt).
The report from The Athletic states that Spurs had the chance to sign the prolific forward for just £10 million from Saint-Etienne when he was just 23. But the manager at the time- Andre Villas-Boas, turned down the opportunity. The striker even reportedly visited White Hart Lane and had his picture taken alongside Aaron Lennon’s shirt in the dressing room, but clearly the Portuguese manager was not convinced by the striker.
Did Spurs make a mistake not signing Aubameyang?
Yes
No
Considering Aubameyang’s impressive goal record in the Premier League with Arsenal, it can certainly be argued that Spurs made a mistake in not signing him back in 2012. However, you could also argue that the £50.4m-rated man has established himself as a top-quality striker during his time at Dortmund; where he hit 141 goals in 213 appearances, so perhaps he wouldn’t have had the same impact with Spurs had he made the direct switch from Saint-Etienne.