Oscar Damiani, the agent of 23-year-old St.Etienne forward Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has confirmed interest from both Arsenal and Spurs according to reports in the Daily Mail.
Aubameyang’s father will have a huge say on his next transfer move and he claims that money will not be a factor with his central interest lying in his son’s improvement.
The Gabonese forward is the second highest scorer in Ligue 1 behind the talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Aubameyang has scored 17 goals in 30 appearances to fire St.Etienne into third position.
Aubameyang’s goal scoring ratio of 0.56′ is certainly impressive. He has had 66 shots on target which leaves him with a conversion rate of 17.5% and an overall shot accuracy of 68%. The conversion rate sounds poor, but statistically he is more lethal than Defoe (13%) and Adebayor (12.5%).
Arsenal are still searching for a forward to provide the finishing touch to their elegant passing style with Giroud’s conversion rate only lying at 12.7%. A key component to Arsenal’s style is their ability to hold the ball up, with their forwards regularly linking up with midfielders to create goal scoring opportunities. Giroud’s passing accuracy is a high 68% with only 51.4% of those going forwards due to him laying the ball off for midfielders such as Santi Cazorla to strike.
Aubameyang has a passing accuracy even higher than Giroud with 78%. However, 58.5% of his passes are forwards which suggests that under Arsene Wenger he may have trouble adapting to their system and holding the ball up. But by no means is Aubameyang selfish, he has created 30 chances for his teammates which have left him with eight assists. This is more than Giroud (29), Defoe (28) and Adebayor (22). Surprisingly, he has two more assists than all three of them combined.
Aubameyang sounds like the perfect replacement for both Arsenal and Spurs, but at 6 ft 1 he has inexcusable aerial weaknesses. He has won just 22% of his aerial duels this season in Ligue 1. This is weak in comparison to Giroud’s 55% which leaves questions about his physical presence in the “toughest league in the world”. Out of all his duels with defenders he has won just 37% overall which is worse than Adebayor (41%), Defoe (40%) and Giroud (51%).
If Arsenal decide to dip into their transfer budget to sign a striker, I don’t expect Wenger to take a chance on Aubameyang. His physical presence is certainly debatable and I suspect that Arsenal will be searching for a more powerful striker capable of both holding the ball up and scoring more goals than Aubameyang will.
Tottenham have more reason to take a chance on Aubameyang due to his ability to run in behind the defence and finish off counter-attacks. Aubameyang offers them the blistering pace that Adebayor doesn’t have and he’s 6 inches taller than Defoe so if they train him to head the ball he could be a transfer bargain.
By Zak Bird
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