Arsenal apparently tabled an offer of €90m during the summer for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang according to a ‘transfer intermediary’ and ‘super agent’ who was the man who met Alexander Hleb for ice-cream in Milan.

By today’s post-Brexit exchange rate, that equals around £80m, however back in August when the pound wasn’t quite so pathetic, it represented around £75m.

Still a massive amount and far more than many of us would expect Arsenal to be willing to pay for any player.

Not so, it seems, according to Vicenzo Morabito who apparently puts people in touch with people so that things can happen.

“Sometime ago, I called Zork, Dortmund’s director of football, to talk about Aubameyang, but the ‘no’ was absolutely categorical,” Morabito told IamNaples.it (via Sport Witness).

“I know that this summer, Arsenal offered €90m for Aubameyang, but Borussia didn’t want to hear anything about it.”

So did Arsenal really offer £75m for the 27-year-old?

It certainly seems unlikely.

Arsenal’s record transfer fee still stands at £42.5m which they paid for Mesut Ozil in 2013. Adjusting for inflation, there is little change with it rising to £45.27m – just shy of £30m less than they allegedly offered.

That being said, Arsenal were trying to make a statement in the summer.

We know that they tried to sign Gonzalo Higuain, who, at €90m was the same price as Aubameyang, but is 18 months older than the Gabonese forward. Arsenal refused to meet Higuain’s release fee, so would they really have offered the same amount for Aubameyang?

Possibly.

Aubameyang has 14 goals and 1 assist in 14 games across all competitions this season, Higuain 9 and 1 in 16. Last season, they were comparable again in terms of goals but it could well have been the number of assists that swung the decision for Arsenal.

In 15/16 Higuain finished with an incredibly impressive 38 goals in 42 games but only managed 3 assists. Patrick, on the other hand, scored  39 in 49 games but assisted 12. Breaking that down further, that’s a goal or assist every 80 minutes for Higuain and every 77 for Aubameyang.

We will probably never know the real truth behind all this, although it’s a nice story to believe, so let’s do that.

An even better one would be us going back for him in the summer and actually getting him.

It’s good to have crazy dreams.