Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has reportedly been offered a bumper £300kpw to move to China which is a handy story to emerge as the player gets ready to talk to Arsenal about a new deal.

Now, I’m not saying the offer from China is made up, Borussia Dortmund admitted they almost sold him there for €78m before he signed for Arsenal. I am, however, questioning the timing of this story, especially given the fact it’s highly unlikely that Auba wants to move to China aged 29.

According to the S*n, Shanghai SIPG have offered Arsenal’s leading goalscorer £300kpw and the redtop rag suggest that his failure to score against Chelsea in the Europa League hints that he ‘cannot cut it in the biggest games’.

This, of course, is total nonsense.

Aubameyang has scored six goals against Bayern Munich, two against United, one against Liverpool, and six in seven against the media’s darling, Tottenham. He’s been top scorer at his club in two of the last three seasons when he was top scorer in the division as well.

Arsenal are expected to begin negotiations with Auba over a new deal as he enters the final two years of his current contract. It is highly unlikely they will want to sell their top scorer just 18 months after signing him.

Still, it’s handy for the player’s agent that rags like the S*n are happy to run stories like this as if they have any grounding in reality.