Arsenal make first bid for Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has long insisted to anyone who asked him leading up to this month that the only way Alexis Sanchez would leave the club is if a replacement is brought in. And now that news has come out that Alexis is on his way today for a medical with Manchester United, word is coming out from Germany from Borussia Dortmund’s CEO that Arsenal have made their first move for their mercurial, hyper-talented forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang:

(translated) “I can confirm that there has been a first request from Arsenal for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and we are not commenting on the sums that have been called from England since noon today,” said BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke on request , Accordingly, the “Gunners” offer 50 million euros - which is well below the expectations of the BVB officials. The Dortmund demand between 60 and 70 million euros.

Aubameyang was left out of Dortmund’s team a second-straight week yesterday, and was pictured playing 5-a-side in, curiously, an Ousmane Dembélé Dortmund shirt while waiting for the two clubs to hash out the details of his future. Aubameyang later took to Twitter to get into a minor war of words with a BILD journalist, which seems par for the course for the Gabon international this month.

Having been suspended, then left out of the team selection by his club, it seems there’s no reason why this move will take all eleven days remaining in this transfer window to finalize.