Off the Crossbar: FC Barcelona already looking to push Robert Lewandowski with…Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang?

Let’s take a brief break from Bayern Munich’s troubles and return to a favorite pastime: wondering what’s going on at FC Barcelona.

In the summer transfer window of 2022, Barça made a splash by making a successful play for Bayern’s legendary number nine, Robert Lewandowski — despite having former Arsenal FC man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang already at the position, having signed him from the London club on a free. Question about funding and financial levers swirled all summer long, and eventually, in January, Aubameyang was sold off to Chelsea FC.

Now a new report from Sky says that Aubameyang is Barça’s “top No 9 target” in order to deliver competition for Lewandowski. While the Gabon international “made a lasting impression” in the locker room in Barcelona, Lewandowski is now getting worked over in the Spanish media. Apparently, all is not well in paradise.

The eternal questions remain: what? why? how? who?! It’s an endless revolving door at Barça, isn’t it? They might be losing star youngster Gavi on a free, and might be selling off last summer’s €50.00m signing Jules Koundé to bring back Lionel Messi. How they’ll make the dollars and cents work has long since ceased to make sense.

And if the Catalans can’t get Aubameyang — who will of course still be under contract with the Blues, having only just been sold — Liverpool FC’s Robert Firmino is an option on a free.

Bayern, meanwhile, have unquestionably come off the poorer for Lewandowski’s departure, with goals at key moments hard to come by in 2022/23. They are now poised to spend big — really big — to properly address the situation one year later.

Oh, if only Bayern and Lewy could have found a way to make their partnership continue! It may not have worked under Julian Nagelsmann, but new Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel would surely have relished the chance to work with the legendary number nine.

Let’s close with one more distraction from Bayern’s troubles, which to be fair probably rank as high as any in ~~Rome~~ Europe, to check in with Tottenham Hotspur — who now look the favorites to land Nagelsmann after Chelsea zeroed in on Mauricio Pochettino.

What kind of club might the former Bayern coach be stepping into? Well, one that just lost so badly at the weekend — a 6-1 defeat to Newcastle United that saw five goals conceded within 21 minutes — that they fired the interim coach. You know, the guy put in charge after firing the last coach. Surely that’s a low that even Bayern couldn’t hit this year. Right?

…Right???