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Good morning, Fear the Wall.
Earlier this week, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, in an interview with German magazine Suddeutsche Zeitung, lamented the departure of Pierre Emerick Aubameyang in January 2018, and accused Aubameyang of leaving for Arsenal only for money. He followed up by taunting Aubameyang about Arsenal only playing on Thursdays in the Europa League.
I’m not sure what the question was that prompted this response, but either way it was completely unnecessary and petty. Aubameyang took to twitter to respond, and it wasn’t pretty:
Better for you I never talk about why I really left Dortmund Mr Watzke you such a clown I remember that time you said we never gonna sell Ousmane then you saw more than 100M you were the first to take that money don’t talk about money please!!! Leave me alone pls
— Aubameyang P-E (@Aubameyang7) October 3, 2019
So, even though Watzke may have gotten his comeuppance for his unnecessary comments in the interview, I also feel a need to come to his defense here, because Aubameyang’s response leaves out an awful lot of context:
- BVB actually did turn down several 100M offers for Ousmane Dembélé. It was only when the player started skipping training and turning into a complete locker room cancer that BVB’s hand was forced (A tactic that a certain Gabonese striker would adopt later, by the way).
- It’s not like Watzke is actually pocketing that money, so the two are in no way comparable.
- That money was used to buy Jadon Sancho who has been at a similar level to Dembélé without the constant locker room drama. Also, considering Dembélé’s quality of play at Barcelona, that money looks like a steal right now.
Furthermore, what is a clown? To me, a clown is somebody who says that they’ll only take a move to Real Madrid, but who jumps ship at the first sign of turmoil to a perennial Europa League contender, and who still can’t score in a big game to save his life.
Hugo Lloris saves Aubameyang's penalty! pic.twitter.com/i8QPee4UP7
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) March 2, 2019
(Hey, I’ll take any excuse I can to relive that moment)
In summary, this was a confrontation that never needed to happen. Zorc responded earlier today, saying that Watzke’s comments weren’t meant to be inflammatory. Even if that’s true, Watzke should have known that the media would have jumped at the first sniff of drama, and that’s unfortunately what happened.
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