Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is in a strange position. He was courted by Chelsea for the final weeks of the transfer market and gained plenty of attention over his eventual deadline day move to Stamford Bridge.
It was a deal pushed largely by Thomas Tuchel and is seen as one of the strangest decisions made around the German's sacking earlier this week. Why would Todd Boehly and co spend £273million backing a manager they weren't entirely convinced by? And even more so, with the relationship between the parties struggling by the time deadline day approached and a plan in place to move on from Tuchel, why sign Aubameyang?
The answer is reportedly that the owners have given their countenance towards all of the new incomings and believe that they can still flourish, even without the manager that they were purchased under.
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Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Aubameyang and a number of youth signings will all now be Graham Potter's responsibility. The English coach has taken over at Stamford Bridge and has a talented but disjointed side to work with. One that has lost three away games in a row and has been fractured during the past months.
Potter also has to get the best out of a player that, despite reassurances, was ultimately drawn to the club largely by the prospect of working under Tuchel. As a proven goalscorer though, former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said: "I think he (Potter) will love Aubameyang."
The ex-Arsenal striker has taken on the burden of wearing the No.9 shirt, but Hasselbaink, who knows a thing or two about scoring for Chelsea, admitted: "I think he will try to make it work the way he wants to work. Aubameyang can score goals. He can win matches, that’s what managers want. I don’t think that there’s going to be a problem there. For Aubameyang, he needs to produce."
As for Potter, he likes to use a defined striker, unlike Tuchel who became pushed towards a fluid front three without a focal point. The new coach has made good use of Danny Welbeck and uses the 31-year-old as a base for his other forwards to move around.
Having previously only scored more than five goals once in the last eight seasons, Potter has helped Welbeck to six goals in each of his last two campaigns. Whilst these are not startling numbers, and Aubameyang will be expected to do much better than that, it is in a team that has struggled for goals but has also improved scoring numbers under the 47-year-old manager.
Potter has also been extremely complimentary of Welbeck, saying: "It was a no-brainer [to keep him] to me because of what he brings on and off the pitch.
"He is as impressive off the pitch as he is on it so when you have got that then you realise that is a valuable asset. I have always kept it quite simple with Danny; if he is playing and he is enjoying his football and he’s fit then everything else takes care of itself.
"Then you can see his quality and then you can see what he brings to any team so it is really exciting for us, the level he is at, and the job now is to keep him at that level."
What it does show is that given a defined No.9 there is no reason that Aubameyang couldn't yet become an integral player for Potter, even if his arrival and first 10 days at Stamford Bridge have been anything but what he expected.
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