the times | Thursday October 15 2020 2GM 63
FootballSport
I
t is doubtful whether Pierre-
Emerick Aubameyang would have
made this list of the top tenPremier League stars six months
ago. Some of my colleagues are
unconvinced that he should be on it
even now.
Such lingering doubt just goes
to show how the Arsenal captain
and Gabon striker continues to
be wrongly, unfairly, daftly
underestimated. That must be far
more to do with Arsenal’s malaise
over much of his time at the Emirates
Why do people still doubt Aubameyang? He’s world class
than his abilities as an attacker not
only of pace and guile but remarkably
consistent potency who would
enhance any side.
Joint top-scorer in the top flight in
2018-19 with 22 goals (ahead of Harry
Kane and Sergio Agüero, among
others) and joint-second last season
with another 22 at a ratio better
than a goal every other game,
Aubameyang scores exceptional and
important goals, and plenty of them
while playing as a thrilling and elusive
wide forward.
Any complaints — that he does not
press with Sadio Mané’s intensity, or
has off days on the periphery — are
quibbles when set against all he can
do, but therein lies the problem.
For too long many looked at
Aubameyang, right, and, rather than
appreciating his gifts, wondered howhe would look in a really good team.
Or at Barcelona, which seemed a
likely destination during a long
time stalling on a new contract.
Aubameyang, 31, joined in
the last months of Arsène
Wenger’s moribund regime
and then endured Unai
Emery’s fitful year and a
half, and perhaps Arsenal’s
wider difficulties distracted
from what should seem
blindingly obvious, in
Aubameyang’s range
of talents.
On Sky Sports this
year Gary Neville was
among those to admit that
he had been too slow to
appreciate Aubameyang’s qualities.
“I’ve watched a lot of him over
the last 2½ years and yet, likeeveryone else, have never really
put him up there with the Premier
League’s world-class players,”
Neville said.
It is high time that
blind spot was rectified
and not only because,
according to Opta, no
Premier League player’s
goals have been worth more
points than Aubameyang’s
since the start of last season.
A club-record £56 million
signing for Arsenal in January
2018 (Wenger’s last deal)
after his prolific 4½ years with
Borussia Dortmund, he scored
a beautiful dink over Jordan
Pickford on his Premier League
debut, against Everton, and has
carried on scoring since. Perhaps,
thanks to the revival under MikelArteta, Aubameyang is starting to be
properly appreciated.
Certainly one of the most notable
features of Arteta’s work was
persuading Aubameyang to stay, not
only for the goals and assists but what
it would have said about the new
regime if the captain and star player
had abandoned ship.
Aubameyang committed to a new
contract last month and the team
around him is starting to take shape.
That should mean we see more of
his brilliance and, when it comes to
a list like this, hear a lot less of
those doubts.8
premier league’s top ten
Pierre-Emerick
Aubameyang
Matt Dickinson Chief Sports Writer
online
Keep up with our countdown of the best
players in the Premier League at
thetimes.co.uk/sportwas already under way,” he said. “There
has been no forcing of anybody.”
PBP had been driven by Henry and
Mike Gordon, the president of Liver-
pool’s owners Fenway Sports Group,
but neither faced the music at the
league meeting, which was held by
video conference. Instead Werner and
Woodward only spoke very briefly to
defend their right to discuss issues
between themselves and then assented
to the statement rejecting the project.
However, there was irritation
expressed about the role of Parry in the
PBP, with some clubs suggesting he had
attempted to destabilise the Premier
League. The top flight’s tactic in only
offering a rescue package to League
One and League Two may also serve to
divide the EFL clubs.
The £50 million package makes
£20 million available in grants toLeague One and League Two clubs
immediately with the other £30 million
available to ensure that no League One
or Two clubs go out of business.
Masters said talks would continue
about supporting the Championship
financially, but many top-flight clubs
have reservations about propping up
the likes of Stoke City, who have billion-
aire owners. If support is to be made
available for the second tier, it would
almost certainly be via loans only.
The Premier League’s offer will be
submitted to the EFL for approval, and
while Masters said there was “frustra-
tion” that Parry had publicly endorsed
the PBP plans, the relationship
between the leagues would endure.
The FA’s chairman Greg Clarke also
spoke out against the project, reiterat-
ing that the governing body would use
its special powers to prevent any break-away league, such as the elite clubs
joining the EFL. “I don’t think anybody
breaking away is the right answer,”
Masters said.
The EFL said it will hold a meeting
with all 72 clubs today to discuss the
Premier League’s offer but was
“encouraged” that there is “an
acknowledgment that a review of the
current status quo is required”.
Meanwhile, a group featuring Gary
Neville, Andy Burnham, the mayor of
Greater Manchester, the former FA
chairman David Bernstein, Mervyn
King, the former governor of the Bank
of England, and David Davies, the
former FA executive director, will today
reveal their plan for an overhaul of the
game by calling for an independent reg-
ulator to be appointed by the govern-
ment if no agreement can be reached
over financial redistribution.Q&A
Why has Project Big Picture (PBP)
been kicked into the long grass?
The overwhelming feeling among
the Premier League clubs was that
this was a naked bid for power and
money by the elite clubs. Even those
who think there are issues that need
to be considered thought that the
project was the wrong way to go.How “dead” is PBP?
It is effectively dead in the water. It
needed all the “big six” clubs, plus a
couple of others at a minimum, to
get on board, which did not happen.Are there any issues from PBP that
the strategy review will address?
The growing gap between the
Championship and the top flight,
and if the biggest clubs can be given
more freedom to market themselves
internationally without tipping the
balance too much between the top
and bottom Premier League clubs.Which proposals could survive and
which are set to be killed off?
It would be a surprise if any of the
big parts of PBP survive. Its plans to
end voting rights for all 20 Premier
League clubs, to increase the
earnings for the elite and to allow
clubs to sell the broadcast rights for
some matches themselves, rather
than collectively, will bite the dust.
Replacing parachute payments with
another financial mechanism for
newly promoted clubs may survive,
as may the whole way solidarity
funding is passed down to the EFL.Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, says
it needs £250 million to survive, so
where is that going to come from?
The latest offer from the Premier
League is believed to apply only to
League One and Two clubs as they
are the ones in most dire need, and
is for £50 million — £20 million as a
grant immediately and £30 million
in a mixture of grants and loans,
depending on need. Any support for
the Championship is undecided.Is Parry’s position under threat?
Unlikely — there has been a fair
amount of support from EFL clubs
for PBP, which Parry backed,
because it meant the EFL receiving
25 per cent of the Premier League’s
TV revenues. So he looks safe, even
though an unrelated offer of
£375 million for a 20 per cent stake
in the league from an American
investment company was rejected
without being put to the clubs.Liverpool and
United chiefs
cave in with
meek surrender
League One and League Two clubs
only and not the Championship.
The meeting was called after last
weekend’s announcement of the PBP’s
aims — put forward by Liverpool’s
owner John Henry and United’s co-
owner Joel Glazer and backed by Rick
Parry, the EFL chairman.
The plan would have handed all
voting powers to the top nine teams in
an 18-team Premier League and hugely
increased their financial income but
ran up against opposition from a large
majority of the top-flight clubs.
The Times revealed online yesterday
that the plan had been rejected by the
clubs and this was confirmed by a
Premier League statement which said:
“All 20 Premier League clubs unani-
mously agreed that Project Big Picture
will not be endorsed or pursued by the
Premier League, or the FA.”
Everton, Southampton and West
Ham United, who would have been
given special status alongside the “big
six” under the proposals, all spoke out
passionately against the plan according
to other club officials in the meeting.
A source close to Henry and Glazer
insisted they felt vindicated despite the
rejection because they had forced a re-
view of issues such as TV rights and in-
come distribution and reducing the size
of the league to 18. Premier League in-
siders, however, insisted that the PBP
backers had been given “a bloody nose”.
The league said it would “work
together as a 20-club collective on a
strategic plan for the future structures
and financing of English football,
consulting with all stakeholders to
ensure a vibrant, competitive and
sustainable football pyramid”.
The review will focus on competition
structure, calendar, governance and
financial sustainability.
After the meeting the Premier
League’s chief executive Richard
Masters denied that it had been forced
into a review. “I don’t think we are being
forced into doing a review, the review
continued from back Government’s ‘inconsistency’
Oliver Dowden, the culture
secretary, has admitted there is an
“inconsistency” in sports fans being
banned from stadiums while large
numbers of spectators can go to
indoor events in theatres.
Dowden was giving evidence to
the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
select committee, where he was
grilled on the decision to scrap the
return of fans on October 1.
The Conservative MP Steve Brine
pointed out that 1,000 people
watched Arsène Wenger, the former
Arsenal manager, talk about his new
book at the London Palladium this
week but there could be no one at
the 100-acre Wentworth golf course.
Dowden said: “I accept people’s
frustration at the inconsistency.
If we had gone ahead [with fans
returning] on October 1 people
would have seen large numbers of
fans in stadiums when the virus was
rising. This is not saying we are not
going ahead, this is simply a pause.” Werner, left, and Woodward were in no mood to put up a fight as the clubs
decided emphatically to jettison Project Big Picture at a meeting yesterday