Chelsea have mucked up big time over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Yes, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali deserve kudos for sticking by Graham Potter. But leaving their only experienced striker out of a Champions League squad with no experienced strikers, is backfiring. Big time.
Chelsea could have just 90 minutes left in the Champions League after yet another blank in Dortmund on Wednesday night. Kai Havertz, scorer of just one goal in his last nine, actually had a valid point afterwards when he insisted the club is going in the right direction. It is.
“We’ve had a lot of new players join in the window,” he said. “You can definitely see us improving and getting that chemistry with one another. This was another step forward, even though we lost.”
All fair enough. But forcing Aubameyang to watch his team-mates missing European sitters from his armchair is still akin to the Blues going to the bank each week, withdrawing £150,000 (his wages) and setting fire to it. Madness.
Chelsea are winless in their last four. They’ve failed to score in three of them and when they did it was just the one, at West Ham.
They’ve also scored just three in their last eight when they should be challenging for the top four. This weekend they can have no excuses against rock-bottom Southampton.
Yes, Aubameyang probably hadn’t shown enough to justify his Champions League inclusion previously. But it is also true to say that Potter’s man-management surely comes into play here.
Aubameyang knows that he is finished at Chelsea. But he, too, will want to put himself in the shop window for a summer move. Playing him works for everyone.
Instead we have Potter maintaining each week that the 33-year-old has done “nothing wrong” yet still isn’t capable of starting every week for a team that doesn’t score goals.
Some more numbers. Chelsea have won just two of their last 13 in all competitions. They’ve not scored more than once since December 27. They’ve not scored more than two since October 8, at home to Wolves in the Premier League.
Freezing out Aubameyang is lunacy. If anything, it is Chelsea’s duty to get him into the shape and the frame of mind to provide more. Look across Europe. Karim Benzema is banging them in for Real Madrid at 35. Olivier Giroud, 36, is three off the top scorers in the Champions League with four goals. Robert Lewandowski, 34, has 23 goals for Barcelona this term too.
Aubameyang surely deserves a conversation at least. An arm around the shoulder. A lifeline. Because in leaving him to rot, Chelsea have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when they can ill-afford it.
They need a striker. They need him back. Results are proving they can’t afford to be wrong and strong.
