Tuchel desperate to renew ties with Aubameyang 

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel says Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has always felt like one of his own and is open to being reunited with the Barcelona striker, who he coached at Borussia Dortmund if Aubameyang can be persuaded to leave the Catalan club.

Barcelona offered Aubameyang, 33, to Chelsea after they signed Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich with a need to reduce their wage bill for this season.

“I enjoyed working a lot with him, it was a pleasure,” Tuchel, the Chelsea head coach, said. “This has nothing to do with the situation now, but some players stay your players because you were very, very close. We are a very close relationship.”

Tuchel said Aubameyang never had disciplinary problems under him in Germany, only days after it emerged that Mikel Arteta kept a dossier on the forward’s wrongdoings before banishing him from Arsenal last season.

Tuchel has kept in contact with Aubameyang since their time in Dortmund and lauded praise on him before they played Arsenal in May 2021.

“I never experienced any of this,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the situation at Arsenal which I will also not comment on out of respect. At Dortmund, there was never an issue. I don’t know if he has had a good press or bad press, I couldn’t care less.”

Aubameyang scored 92 goals in 163 games for Arsenal between 2018 and 2022 and 11 times in 17 league matches for Barcelona. Barcelona have to pay him more money this season than the last campaign because Arsenal effectively subsidised his wage for the first six months in paying him £7 million to terminate his £350,000-a-week contract in January.

Arteta, the Arsenal manager, said he hoped Aubameyang would get a good reception from Arsenal fans should he return to the Emirates Stadium as a Chelsea player.

“I hope he does because I think he deserves that,” he said of the prospect of applause rather than boos. “There are moments in life, there are moments in your career, and sometimes the trajectory or the objective of each individual is different to the clubs — and you have to respect that.

“Auba is an exceptional player. He did so much for us. He was our captain and I think we have to be grateful, very grateful as well, for what he did for this club.”

Arteta’s jettisoning of his biggest supply of goals has been highlighted by the current All Or Nothing documentary series on Amazon. The Spaniard insisted he had no regrets at taking such a hard-line stance in a season where Arsenal ended up missing out of Champions League qualification.

 “It’s a long time since that happened, I cannot go back every time there is another series,” he said. “What has been done has always been done to defend our club and put the club in best possible position, and being always as clear as honest and as consistent as we can.”

Chelsea’s interest in Aubameyang stems from the fact that Tuchel has struggled to find a striker to replace Romelu Lukaku, who returned on loan to Inter Milan. In contrast, Tottenham Hotspur, his opponents on Sunday, acted swiftly to address Antonio Conte’s threats last season to walk out in the summer if he was not backed in the transfer market.