Barcelona, AC Milan, Atlético Madrid monitoring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang situation at Chelsea — report

It seemed like an ill-advised transfer from the get-go, Chelsea acquiring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona, made even more confusing by the sacking of head coach Thomas Tuchel almost immediately after.

To his credit, Aubameyang had remained committed to the club and the new head coach. However, success on the pitch has largely eluded him, and his play and goalscoring record have been as uninspiring as his chosen shirt number might’ve indicated — 3 goals in 17 appearances (10 starts) make it his worst season so far since his first baby steps in top flight football in France.

Auba’s season took a turn for the embarrassing this week, with Chelsea cutting him from our Champions League squad for the second half of the season — despite him starting all six of our group games — to help make room for three new signings. (We had one open spot; Jorginho’s departure made two, but Hakim Ziyech’s failed move to PSG meant someone had to make way ... and it wasn’t Hakim!) Auba was then not named in the matchday squad for the Fulham match Friday night either, and in fact wasn’t even at the stadium, having gotten an early start on his weekend off in Milan (with our approval, supposedly).

That sequence of events has unsurprisingly raised some serious doubts about the 33-year-old’s future at the club. We have him under contract for 18 more months but there is little we can do about it now, with the transfer window closed. For a potential summer move, the Daily Mail claim that Barcelona, AC Milan, and Atlético Madrid have already lodged enquiries with Chelsea, all three of which seem premature at this point. But perhaps they will come back for what shouldn’t be a pricey arrangement.

Until then, with Auba last in the striker pecking order now, we have four awkward months to look forward to.