Since leaving Barcelona for Chelsea, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has not enjoyed the best of times. Leaving the Blaugrana in part due to financial pressure on the club and joining Chelsea in part to work with Thomas Tuchel, the German manager left shortly after Aubameyang returned to London.
While Graham Potter has maintained faith in him in the Champions League, Aubameyang has seen his role dramatically reduced in the Premier League. The end result is that approaching the halfway mark in the season, Aubameyang has just three goals to his name.
With Memphis Depay potentially edging towards an exit this January, various sources have reported that Aubameyang has offered himself to the Catalan club. FIFA rules prevent a player from playing for three European clubs in a season, thus his only route out of Chelsea is back to Camp Nou, something he is willing to facilitate with a drastic salary reduction.
Speaking in his Substack column, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano highlighted the key factors in any deal.
“La Liga sources say that he’s not even allowed to do one more move in Europe in January; Barcelona are still checking this,” Romano told Caught Offside.
“Barca moves will depend on three factors: Depay to leave (Atletico Madrid are pushing); free transfer; La Liga rules on financial fair play. Let’s see how the situation will evolve.”
Barcelona have maintained that they will not make any changes to their squad this January, save for a surprise move. Perhaps Memphis’ departure could provoke them into action. If Aubameyang was to arrive almost without cost to Barcelona, there is no doubt he would be an asset. While Robert Lewandowski occupies his favoured position the vast majority of the time, none of the other forwards in Xavi Hernandez’s arsenal ‘have goal’ as they saying goes in Spain.
