Arsenal Transfer News: Top Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel Boschilia Rumours

Arsenal reportedly attempted to land Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a £42 million deal over the summer before being rebuffed in their advances. More currently, the Gunners are hunting AS Monaco's Gabriel Boschilia.

German newspaper Bild (h/t the Sun's Richard Forrester) reported manager Arsene Wenger's side attempted to steal in front of their European rivals with the mega-money bid for Aubameyang over the summer months.

As we now know, that approach came to nothing before the north Londoners eventually landed a deal for Deportivo La Coruna striker Lucas Perez for a much more affordable €20 million (£17.1 million) sum, per BBC Sport.

The Premier League club is still in need of an out-and-out world-class talent up front, with Alexis Sanchez playing the leading role this season. However, Aubameyang's mother, Margarita Crespo, recently reiterated to Cadena SER programme El Larguero (h/t AS) that a move to Real Madrid remains his goal:

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I won't go to the Santiago Bernabeu, I have to look after my grandkids but I will watch it on television. A move to Madrid would be lovely but at the moment he is doing well at Dortmund and we will have to see what happens. He promised his grandfather that he would play for Real Madrid and since he was a little boy he spoke about Madrid and never about Barcelona. My family have always been Real Madrid and I would like to see him in white.

"

As fate would have it, Aubameyang scored Dortmund's first at the Bernabeu in his side's 2-2 draw against Real in Wednesday's UEFA Champions League group-stage meeting to help the Germans finish first in their pool.

The Gabon international could have full intentions of fulfilling said promise to his grandfather in the future and took to Instagram to dedicate his goal to his late relative following a superb midweek result:

Arsenal may therefore struggle to pull the forward's attention toward England's capital, with Aubameyang, 27, entering the prime of his playing career and having netted 19 goals in 19 outings this season.

Forrester noted Aubameyang has previously suggested he could leave Dortmund at the end of this season, but manager Thomas Tuchel has illustrated his importance to the club, per BBC Sport's Oluwashina Okeleji:

Elsewhere, Monaco winger Boschilia has been linked with a move to Emirates Stadium, although French outlet Foot Mercato (h/t Metro's Mark Brus) outlined Juventus as stiff opponents to sign the Brazilian.

Boschilia, 20, has scored four goals in just three Ligue 1 starts for Monaco this season. He's made nine league appearances in total, and Goal's Robin Bairner recently praised his particular menace from free-kick situations:

The former Brazil under-20 international is quickly outlining his importance to the Monaco cause and has a little more than three-and-a-half years remaining on his contract, which is set to expire in 2020.

The agent of former Monaco wonderkid Anthony Martial, now at Manchester United, revealed Wenger once passed on the chance to sign the Frenchman, per Sky Sports. He may look to make up for that miss with Boschilia.