We’ve covered a few claims by Vincenzo Morabito in the past, but this time, the ‘transfer intermediary’, whose job appears to put the right people in touch with each other for deals to happen, appears to have outdone himself and made a big claim about Arsenal.
The topic of Napoli’s frontline has been a huge topic of conversation for the local media, trying to find the right formula to replace Arkadiusz Milik’s absence from the starting line up, and news that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could have been an option hasn’t gone down too well.
Explaining that Maurizio Sarri didn’t feel the Gabon international would fit into his system, Aurelio De Laurentiis appears to have unwillingly added more pressure on those in charge of footballing matters at his club, especially since Aubameyang is scoring for fun in Germany (four goals at the weekend, for example).
However, according to Morabito, speaking to IamNaples.it, Napoli weren’t the only ones who expressed a strong interest in the Dortmund striker, as Arsenal were also in the mix, and the Gunners even made an offer.
He said: “Sometime ago, I called Zork, Dortmund’s director of football, to talk about Aubameyang, but the ‘no’ was absolutely categorical. I know that this summer, Arsenal offered €90m for Aubameyang, but Borussia didn’t want to hear anything about it.”
While we can believe that Arsène Wenger would like to bring the prolific striker to the Emirates, surely a bid of €90m wouldn’t have stayed secret for this long? Perhaps Dortmund were suggesting a big bid had gone in, and from there Morabito has got the Arsenal claim.
It’s possible, of course, and Arsenal were indeed looking for a striker during the summer, with Wenger in the end going for Lucas Pérez, but this just seems that little bit too over the top for us.
