Ivan Gazidis reportedly contacted BvB to organise talks regarding Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but these have not taken place yet, according to Dortmund CEO, Hans-Joachim Watzke.
According to Bild, Dortmund will only sell if they receive £61m for their striker.
Arsenal are “serious” about signing Aubameyang, they claim, but will need to provide a substantial offer if they’re to sign him.
Arsenal’s opening offer was said to be £43m, which is some way short of Dortmund’s asking price. However, it’s not entirely clear where these reports of a bid have come from as both clubs claim nothing much is going on right now.
Arsenal did made contact with the German side, as confirmed by their CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
“I can that there was contact from Arsenal for Pierre-Emerick Aubaemyang,” he said, as reported by Sky Germany.
He also said, “There was a contact with Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis, where he informed me that he would like to speak with us. That has not happened yet. There are no current discussions.”
Arsene Wenger is, unsurprisingly, being cagey about the move.
He was pressed on the deal after Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, but gave some very typical answers.
“No. No comment on that,” he said, as reported by Arsenal.com.
“We are nowhere near anything with Dortmund. Nothing.”
‘No comment’ is usually Wenger’s policy until a deal is close to happening.
Yet, somehow, his comments earlier in the week annoyed Dortmund.
Their sporting director Michael Zorc released a strongly worded statement about Wenger’s comments, saying: “We find it disrespectful to speak about players of other clubs. We assumed that Arsene Wenger would have enough to do to take care of the performances of his own players.”
Wenger was surprised, and believes that it was a tactical move.
“I don’t know what I said? I said nothing happens and I cannot comment on that. So I am quite surprised. It looks to me like a tactical reaction rather than anything else, because I said nothing. I said I don’t know anything about it.”
Arsenal are putting the finishing touches on the deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Reuniting him with Aubameyang, though, may take some more time.
In fact, according to Wenger, nothing is close to being done on that front.
“They are responsible for their own statements you know,” he said in response to Dortmund going public about the deal.
“I cannot stand up for what they say. But if we sign somebody, we will announce it. I half-announced today, Sanchez against Mkhitaryan, because that is likely to happen and the rest… we are not close at all to anything.”
With little under two weeks remaining in the window, it shouldn’t be too long before there’s another development.