Player ‘put pressure on Arsenal’ for January exit – Club were forced to act, ‘intense’ negotiations

Earlier this week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang completed a move to Barcelona on a free transfer, after terminating his contract with Arsenal.

The forward endured a difficult final two months with the Gunners as he was frozen out at the club by Mikel Arteta.

Sport on Friday gives a background on how the Gabon international managed to seal a switch to the Camp Nou.

Xavi Hernández wanted Álvaro Morata in the winter market, but faced difficulties to sign him, forcing Barcelona to shift their focus to the former Borussia Dortmund man.

His arrival was made difficult because Ousmane Dembélé, who was asked to leave the club, decided not to move.

Therefore, ‘it was essential’ for Aubameyang to ‘disassociate himself’ from Arteta’s side to arrive at Barcelona. The last three days of the January window were ‘intense’ as the deal was ‘sometimes close’ or ‘sometime far away’, with ‘everything depending on Arsenal’.

On deadline day, the player was pictured coming out of an airport in Barcelona, which surprised both the Blaugrana and the Gunners. Sport state this was done by the player to ‘put pressure on Arsenal’, and also on Barca.

“If the signing had not been achieved while the player was here, they would have said that we [Barcelona] had failed,” a source from Barca told Sport.

It was essential that all documents related to the termination of the attacker’s contract were ‘signed and delivered’ by Arsenal to the FA before the window closed.

After this was done, Barca and Aubameyang took two days to formalise an agreement between them.

Aubameyang making a trip to Spanish city to ‘put pressure on Arsenal’ and also on Barcelona worked in his favour as he managed to get a free transfer to the Camp Nou.