Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been warned he has another Mesut Ozil on his hands in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The striker signed a new contract at Arsenal last September following months of speculation over his future at the Emirates. The Gabon international had just led the Gunners to FA Cup glory with a brace in both the semi-final and final wins.
Arsenal felt they could not afford to lose Aubameyang on a free transfer and handed him a new deal worth up to £350,000 a week with loyalty payments and bonuses.
The contract is set to keep him at the club until the summer of 2023, where the striker will be turning 34.
However, he has scored just two Premier League goals since he signed his extension.
Former Aston Villa striker Tony Cascarino has compared Aubameyang’s situation to that of Ozil.
Ozil is the highest-paid player at Arsenal but is finally set to leave the club in the coming days after being frozen out by Arteta in the last 10 months.
“I feel really awkward about Arsenal and talking about Aubameyang because I’m talking about a guy with an incredible goalscoring record,” Cascarino said on talkSPORT.
“But he hasn’t had one this year and I’m feeling like it’s Ozil 2.0.
“They’ve given him this ridiculous contract that’s so big, even though we all might go, ‘it should have been done, he’s been brilliant, he’s played such a high level of football that he’s got to be given the crown jewels’.
“[But] I’m not convinced Arsenal will keep going down this road of paying these players a wage that is way above other players at the football club.”
Arsenal this week appointed Richard Garlick as their director of football operations and Cascarino says his arrival will help the Gunners’ contract issues.
He added: “They’ve overpaid players who have been playing well, and even players that have played well at other clubs are coming in and upping their wage structure to a real division.
“I can see some players getting huge money and at the lower end being quite a long way apart.
“I think that is going to be an issue that [Garlick] will have to adjust. There’s definitely problems for Arsenal that you can see have to be resolved.
“Maybe someone like Richard Garlick coming in alongside Arteta is the right man for the job.”
