Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has given his answer to a question most Arsenal players are asked at least once in their Gunners spell: would you prefer to play for Tottenham Hotspur or retire? As he is the captain of Arsenal, and as he is now aged 32, you’d expect it to be any an easy answer for Aubameyang. However, there’s a back story to the Gabon forward’s response that not everyone is aware of. At an earlier stage in his career, Spurs were actually close to signing Aubameyang, but they allegedly never called him back after he flew to London to finalise a deal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang said: “You don’t need to ask the question, you know it [the answer] already, I would retire. Even more because I don’t know if you know but a few years ago I was close to signing for Tottenham and at the end I don’t know what they did. So, I would retire for sure. I was in St-Etienne I think [when I was close to signing], I’m not sure, or at the beginning of Dortmund. I don’t remember exactly. I came here [to north London], I went to the stadium as well to White Hart Lane. The day after they just never gave an answer, they never called back so I was like ‘ok, don’t worry’, so that’s why every time I play against them, they know [why I’m motivated to perform].”
And according to the stats, it’s true that he’s motivated to perform well against the Lilywhites, as he’s found the net four times in seven games against them for the Gunners, which is a more than respectable return. It’s fair to say that he’s happy with how things turned out.
