Some Everton fans have been reacting on social media, after Sam Allardyce claimed the club stopped talks with Borussia Dortmund for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during his time at the helm.
Allardyce was speaking on talkSPORT following Sunday’s 3-2 defeat away to Arsenal, where Aubameyang scored twice to move level with Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy as the Premier League’s leading goalscorer with 17 goals each.
The Gabon international has been a huge hit for the Gunners since moving to the Emirates Stadium in January 2018 for a then-club-record £56million, with Aubameyang scoring 60 goals in 95 games across all competitions since.
Allardyce had wanted to bring Aubameyang to the Premier League in that same window, but was informed by the Everton hierarchy that a deal would not be possible due to the finances involved.
“I tried to buy him at Everton,” Allardyce said. “It was about £60m or £70m I think.
“We were searching for goals after [Romelu] Lukaku went and just wanted to test the waters.
“We spoke through his agent, and we had a shout that he was apparently desperate to get away from Germany and get into the Premier League.
“So we thought we’d have a dab, but we didn’t get very far to be fair.”
Is Allardyce just talking rubbish?
Yes
No
We were still reeling from the summer departure of Lukaku in January 2018, having sold the Belgian to Manchester United for an initial £75m the previous summer.
But rather than signing Aubameyang, we opted for Cenk Tosun and Theo Walcott, and spent £27m on the Turkey international who has scored ten goals in 51 games for the club and in excess of £20m on the former Arsenal winger.
Here are some of the messages shared as fans reacted to Allardyce’s claim…
Listen when you played neassssssa before Rooney says it all about your know how on football
— Alec Phillips (@Phillips10Alec) February 25, 2020
High on gravy him
— Andrew M Fitzsimons (@FitzyA83) February 25, 2020
Tosun the natural alternative 🤷♂️
— Graeme McVeigh (@GraemeMcV) February 25, 2020
No way the Everton board would have backed fatso with £70m. They’re mad, but not that mad.
— Peter Morris (@petermorris1878) February 25, 2020
Him and Steve Walsh between them had haaland and aubameyang 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— HS (@BlueSnowy1878) February 25, 2020
We tried to sign Beckham for our Sunday league team, he was about £25m – we couldn’t quite stretch that far. We spoke to his agent as he was desperate to leave old Trafford but he never responded. We were looking for a midfielder as Mikes misses had put a stop to him playing…..
— George Gould (@G_to_the_Gould) February 25, 2020
And Walcott
— Xenophon Law (@TheXentertainer) February 25, 2020
In other Everton news, the club are reportedly interested in a 6 ft 3 midfielder subject of a €20m bid from a Premier League club.