Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pursuit cools as Chelsea, Barcelona far apart on fee — reports

According to reports this weekend from Gerard Romero, Mundo Deportivo and Diario Sport, Chelsea’s pursuit of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has cooled down. The Blues had proposed £15m plus Marcos Alonso in exchange for Aubameyang, but Barcelona rejected that offer since they want straight cash.

The situation has come to an impasse now, with the Catalan club asking for upwards of €25m while we have no intention of paying more than €17.5m or so.

Barcelona’s first priority is to free up the wage bill in order to register Jules Koundé (who’s apparently and understandably growing restless), and while they are still interested in Alonso, he is not the utmost priority right now either. In fact, Barca have already started looking at alternative options should their move for Alonso fall through.

There is still optimism that a deal will get done eventually, with Barcelona in desperate need of cash, and more talks are set to take place between the clubs as well as the agents in the coming days. On the positive side, there are no remaining hurdles on personal terms seemingly, with Aubameyang happy with the terms of the contract that we have offered.