Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele has dared to utter Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s name out loud, which means the 20-year-old is signing for Arsenal… apparently.

Dembele has been linked with Arsenal ever since his former Dortmund teammate Aubameyang moved to north London.

The 20-year-old forced a move to Barcelona last summer, costing the La Liga giants €105m, plus €40m in add-ons, yet somehow the media are trying to fool us into thinking Arsenal will sign him a year later.

The Daily Star even claim that the Frenchman was dropping a hint that he would sign for Arsenal when he spoke about Aubameyang recently.

“Honestly, I had a beautiful relationship with Auba,” said Dembele.

“Too bad it only lasted a year.

“For me, a guy coming from Evreux, meeting Aubameyang meant a lot.

“I was pretty good with him. It’s easy to play with a guy like that, he goes fast, he is always well placed.”

The former Dortmund man is just showing appreciation for his teammate, not saying that he wants to leave one of the best clubs in the world after only a year to play with him.

Here’s why Dembele – at least this Dembele – will not sign for Arsenal in the summer.

2Money money money

(ROMAIN LAFABREGUE/AFP/Getty Images)

Barcelona paid £92.6m for Dembele last summer. And while the 20-year-old has only made 12 appearances for them since the move due to injury, there’s no way the Catalans are going to sell the forward so soon after signing him. Especially not to Arsenal, who wouldn’t let them sign Hector Bellerin last year.

Although Arsenal were willing to spend a similar amount of Monaco’s Thomas Lemar in August 2017, he was Alexis Sanchez’s replacement. Now, Arsenal have already replaced the Chilean with Miki, and added Aub. Why would they need to spend huge amounts on another forward? As mentioned above, there’s no reason that would warrant such a frivolous expenditure.

Dembele’s release clause is said to be £368m, which means that, unless Barca really, really want to sell him, no other team are getting near.

What’s more, he may not be getting the game time he wants right now, but that doesn’t mean he immediately wants to leave Barcelona for Arsenal. He may only be 20 but surely he’s not that impulsive?

On top of Dembele’s release clause, his wages are also massive.

https://twitter.com/FootyAccums/status/903603230655090688

The youngster is reportedly earning around £220,472 a week. There’s no way Arsenal would pay that for such a young player and, if they did, that would really set the cat among the pigeons… Talk about obliterating our pay structure.