Thomas Tuchel would not be drawn on whether Chelsea are trying to sign Aubameyang, but he did concede that he has a close bond with the Barcelona star from their time at Borussia Dortmund and said, ‘some players stay your players.’
Chelsea have been linked with a move for the former Arsenal player, who only left London for Barca in January this year after a controversial end to his time at the club.
Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner have both left Stamford Bridge this summer, and while Chelsea have brought in Raheem Sterling, they are looking to add another forward, with the 33-year-old possibly that man.
Tuchel would not provide any kind of update on the pursuit of the striker, but he did talk up how well they got on during their spell at Dortmund together from 2015-17.
‘I enjoyed a lot working with him, it was a pleasure,’ Tuchel told a press conference of Aubameyang. ‘It has nothing to do with the situation now but some players stay your players because you were very, very close and Auba is one of those players, we had a very close relationship.
‘Always when we played him here with Arsenal it was always straight away this close bond. They always stay your players, in a way, and Auba is one of these guys.’
Aubameyang was stripped of the Arsenal captaincy before leaving for Barcelona in the January window after disciplinary breaches at the club, but Tuchel says he never had any such problems with him in Dortmund.
‘I experienced none of this, it has nothing to do with the situation at Arsenal, which I will not comment on out of respect,’ said the German. ‘It’s not on me to comment because I don’t know what happened, but in Dortmund there was never an issue.;
He added: ‘I don’t follow the press about Pierre. I don’t know if he has good or bad press, I couldn’t care less. We don’t talk about the future with players not here. The future is training tomorrow morning.’
