Opinion: 3 reasons why Arsenal shouldn't sign Wilfried Zaha

#3 To sign Zaha would cost a lot of money – and may cost Arsenal Aubameyang

Selling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to finance a move for Zaha would make no sense

It’s been suggested that due to their failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League, Arsenal’s transfer budget this summer is likely to be anywhere between £40m and £50m – a very low figure when you consider that Manchester United just paid £50m for Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka. With that in mind it’s no wonder that Palace turned down Arsenal’s £40m bid for Zaha, and if the rumors of Palace potentially demanding double that amount – if not more – for their talisman, then how will Arsenal finance such a deal?

One way that has been suggested is for Arsenal to cash in on their own prize asset, striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon hitman cost the Gunners around £56m when they signed him from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, but despite the big price tag he’s been well worth the money thus far, as he scored 10 goals in just 13 Premier League games in his debut season before hitting 22 in 36 matches to win the Golden Boot last season.

It has been suggested that Arsenal might be open to selling him if they recieve a bumper bid for the Gabonese star.

To sell him now, though, would be downright baffling. Sure, he’s 30 years old, but that doesn’t mean he’s past his prime, and 22 Premier League goals last season would seem to prove that. He’s still got his incredible pace and finishing ability, and to sell him to finance a move for Zaha wouldn’t make sense.

Arsenal could simply turn to Alexandre Lacazette as their main striker and use Zaha to partner him, but that still wouldn’t make up for the loss of Aubameyang’s goals; in fact, Zaha and Lacazette scored 23 goals between them last season across 59 appearances, just 1 more than Aubameyang delivered by himself.

In conclusion, then, it’s hard to really justify selling Aubameyang to bring in Zaha. So rather than chase such an expensive attacking signing, surely Unai Emery would be better off sticking with the attackers that he’s already got – and using the tight budget he does have to strengthen his side’s back-line.