Chelsea put a price on Barcelona target – report

Barcelona target Aubameyang

With multiple forwards currently on the radar of FC Barcelona, the economic feasibility of acquiring them remains the primary issue. One such forward that has already experienced life to a successful extent in FC Barcelona was Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who now dreams of returning to the Catalans.

Currently contracted to Chelsea, the Gabonese striker was originally acquired by FC Barcelona as a free agent and then sold to the Blues of London for a price of €12 million following a strong season in Spain. However, life has not been too kind to the forward in England.

Now not a proper regular for Chelsea due to problems with the coaching staff as well as performance-based issues, the striker hopes to gain a letter of freedom from the club so that he becomes a feasible option for FC Barcelona amid the financial crisis.

However, as per recent reports from SPORT, Chelsea do not intend to do any such thing. Instead, they have informed the player’s environment that a price of €4-5 million is what they expect to be paid for his services should any club be interested.’

Apart from FC Barcelona, the reported interested clubs currently are the San Siro-based sides Inter Milan and AC Milan. The player on the other hand has addressed Chelsea and informed them that he does not wish to wait for these offers and prefers Barcelona to any other potential destination.

His substantial salary remains problematic for Chelsea, as they have already gone through massive economic mismanagement by spending 100s of millions of Euros on acquiring new players that have ultimately not resulted in particularly hopeful results for the Blues, seeing as they sit 11th in the English Premier League and have been eliminated from every cup competition.

As time passes, Chelsea would still be recording a loss should the player leave on a free transfer regardless of when his contract runs out. Thus, it becomes a sensible decision to rather let him leave for free right now and save the unwanted and unnecessary expenses on his salary that they would have to endure nonetheless should he be forced to stay for longer.

FC Barcelona will continue to thus monitor his situation, and assess if, from both a sporting and financial perspective, a return for the Gabonese striker is indeed possible.