All’s fair in love and football it seems, and Chelsea are apparently not going to make it easy at all for their striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, to return to Barcelona this summer.
The Gabonese has done nothing of note since joining the Blues from the Catalan outfit, and pictures of him celebrating Barca’s El Clasico win from inside their dressing room surely won’t have gone down well at Stamford Bridge.
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, almost out of Chelsea project, was in Barcelona’s dressing room after Real Madrid game ???? #FCB
Auba has still excellent relationship with Barça players, board and Xavi.
He wanted to return in January but it was not possible due to FIFA rules. pic.twitter.com/5KjPpbz8gH
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 20, 2023
As Fabrizio Romano notes in his tweet, the player still has a good relationship with Barca, and to that end, any move back there would clearly suit Auba.
However, Sport note that Chelsea are angry. So much so, that they’re looking for other options for him in the transfer market, with Internazionale of Milan known to be interested in his services.
The report suggests that whilst the Blues are aware of the player’s intentions, and he will take a considerable drop in salary to make the move happen, but Chelsea will not facilitate his departure to the Camp Nou.
With Robert Lewandowski already in situ at Barca and scoring relatively freely, Aubameyang would surely only be an impact player from the subs bench in any event.
According to WhoScored, in the entirety of the 2022/23 campaign, he has played for Chelsea 18 times in all competitions since signing, but never for 90 minutes, and has only managed three goals of which just one, against Crystal Palace in October, was in the Premier League.
On that basis, you’d have to question why Xavi would even want to consider having the player back in the first place.