Chelsea and ex-Arsenal star takes massive pay cut on £150k-a-week wages to force transfer

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is close to agreeing to a deal with French side Marseille where he will sign a two-year contract that will bring to an end to a nightmare period as a Chelsea player.

Aubameyang was signed by former manager Thomas Tuchel just days before he was sacked, leaving the Gabon international in limbo and predictably ended up being a very poor season for the player and the club in general.

He was left out of Graham Potter’s Champions League knockout stage list and his game time did not significantly improve when Frank Lampard took over.

According to a report on the Evening Standard, Marseille have agreed on personal terms with the player who has been left out of the training party to the United States for the second part of their pre-season training.

The deal to Marseille however hinges on Aubameyang accepting a huge drop in his wages even though he does get an option for an extra year based on performances and quite simply attainable clauses.

Chelsea are also reported to be looking at getting at least £5million from the deal which could lead to Marseille having to renegotiate the terms of the deal with the Gabonese striker.

The 34-year-old proved he could score goals when he moved from Arsenal to Barcelona but a move back to the Premier League yielded only one goal in 15 league games even though admittedly, the club was in transition and Chelsea just never got going.

Chelsea signed him for £ 1million last season and handed him a two-year deal, sources say Chelsea are looking at least to get him off the wage bill to create room and ultimately tie into the long-term vision of having a club that looks after itself.