BVB: Aubameyang played badly to force Arsenal move
The 28-year-old joined Arsenal this winter for € 63.8 million, scoring on his debut as the Gunners put the sword to Everton.
Yet BVB’s CEO, Hans-Joakim Watzke, has accused the Gabonese star of mailing it in in his last few weeks in Germany.
He told FAZ: "On Thursday, I laid it on the line for the squad — the next player who does something like that will fail miserably.
"He’ll run into major problems. The next player who tries to put us under pressure by withholding performances or even going on strike will not get a pass and will instead sit in the stands.”
Aubameyang was crucially dropped for Borussia’s trip to Hertha Berlin because he had looked “lackadaisical” in training.
Watzke continued:
"They are all aware of it. This is now a public statement. Following Dembele and Aubameyang, there is now an overriding interest for the club — we need to get a better structure into our squad again.
"Aubameyang committed himself to us for this season, especially as a reaction to Dembele’s transfer.
"But he also had the notion that we owed to him because in 2016 he opted for us and decided against very lucrative offers amid the exits of [Mats] Hummels, [Ilkay] Gundogan and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan."
Watzke also explained that Aubameyang was sold because he had, in essence, burned too many bridges.
He added: "Because we had the impression there will be no new start for him in the Ruckrunde [second half of the season]. Not with the fans, not with the team. Too much had been damaged through his behaviour”.