Out-of-favour Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has effectively left the club already, according to a claim from journalist Paul Brown.
THE LOWDOWN: AUBAMEYANG OUT OF FAVOUR AT CHELSEA
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The 33-year-old has become a peripheral figure under Graham Potter in recent months, with the manager clearly not seeing him as a key player in the slightest.
Prior to his late introduction as a substitute in today’s defeat at Tottenham, Aubameyang hadn’t featured since a brief cameo away to Liverpool last month and he has only started four times in the Premier League this season.
It seems inevitable that the striker will depart Stamford Bridge during the summer transfer window, and one journalist has claimed that the Gabon forward has already more or less checked out from the club, who he only joined six months ago.
THE LATEST: AUBAMEYANG HAS ‘MENTALLY’ CHECKED OUT
Speaking to GiveMeSport, Brown went as far as to say that Aubameyang isn’t even at Chelsea in a mental sense these days, such is the extent to which he has fallen off Potter’s radar.
The reporter said:
“I think, mentally, Aubameyang is gone. I think he’s left already.
“It’s quite clear that, as deprecating and nice as Graham Potter has been about him, he doesn’t really see him as someone who’s going to play for him at all.”
THE VERDICT: DREADFUL SIGNING
The signing of Aubameyang felt like a risk at the time, given his age and disruptive influence at Arsenal, and he has turned out to be a disastrous addition.
The former Borussia Dortmund marksman has scored just three goals in 17 appearances for Chelsea, all while earning an eye-watering £160,000 per week.
At 33, and with his performances clearly not impressing the manager, selling Aubameyang this summer seems an absolute no-brainer for the Blues, although they could struggle to yield much of a transfer fee given how much his stock has fallen.
The attacker was described as ‘excellent‘ by Potter earlier this season, but the Chelsea boss has clearly run out of patience with him given Aubameyang’s lack of involvement in recent weeks, and it looks like a transfer which will go down as a massive flop.
