Arsenal working on a new complicated contract for £200,000-a-week star
Arsenal are understood to be working on a complicated deal as they seek to reward top striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a new contract at the club, a report from The Telegraph claims.
The Gabon international has been the club’s main goalgetter since his arrival from Borussia Dortmund last year and he has already amassed 34 goals from 51 league outings for the side.
As a result, the north London giants are aware of the importance of extending the player’s contract which expires in the summer of 2021, but the procedure seems to be incentive-based, as per The Telegraph.
Aubameyang is currently on a £200,000-a-week package and it is stated that the club are not in a position to offer him a new contract which would put him on par with Mesut Ozil’s £350,000-a-week salary.
Instead, Gunners head of football Raul Sanllehi appears prepared to reward him with a huge bonus, provided the club are able to seal Champions League qualification this season.
Aubameyang has started the current campaign in a bright fashion with goals in successive league games and those strikes have been pivotal to the eventual outcome.
As such, there are no doubts regarding his commitment towards the team’s cause, but the striker needs to come up with a contract decision at the earliest to avoid any uncertainty over his club future.
Arsenal made the surprise choice to part ways with Aaron Ramsey on a free last summer after deciding against renewing his contract, but a repeat of the same appears unlikely to happen.
Earlier in May, Gunners managing director Vinai Venkatesham made it quite clear that the players, who have two years remaining on their contracts will either have to agree to a renewal or be sold.
“We need to be really disciplined when we are dealing with senior players who are not towards the end of their careers,” he told the club’s official website.
“So that means we have to start making the difficult decisions when they have two years left on the contracts. We’re either going to renew those contracts or we’re going to be selling them.”
