ARSENAL are becoming resigned to the fact that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will enter the final year of his contract without agreeing a new deal.
Head of football Raul Sanllehi and technical director Edu want their £56million top-scorer to commit his long-term future to the club.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is out of contract next summerCredit: Getty Images – Getty
But they do not believe a deal can be made until they know if Arsenal will be in Europe next season.
And with the current campaign set to run deep into the summer, they risk Aubameyang having just months of his contract to run when they finally get down to serious talks.
They then face the prospect of losing their captain for nothing next year because Aubameyang, 30, is reluctant to extend his stay unless he can compete in Europe.
Both Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham insisted that the club would never allow itself to be placed in such a position after Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey left as free agents.
And they are determined to avoid a repeat of the scenario of two years ago, when Arsenal were panicked into awarding Mesut Ozil a £350,000-a-week deal to prevent him from running his contract down.
Ozil, Bukayo Saka, Shkodran Mustafi and Reiss Nelson are also out of contract in 2021 but there is not the same urgency to agree terms with those players as there is with Aubameyang.
Barcelona, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are all keeping tabs on the situation.
The interested trio believe Aubameyang can be prised away for £35m this summer.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
