Arsene Wenger ready to part-exchange Olivier Giroud in order to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal

Arsenal are unwilling to pay the €70m for Aubameyang but may offer Giroud as a makeweight

Giroud nearly left for Everton in the summer (Getty)

Arsene Wenger is ready to offer Olivier Giroud to Borussia Dortmund in an attempt to find a deal for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal are talking to Dortmund about signing the Gabonese international, for whom Dortmund initially wanted €70m. Arsenal do not want to pay that much, so they have told Dortmund that they would be willing to include the veteran France striker as part of the deal.

Giroud has been relegated to a fringe role this season by the arrival of Alexandre Lacazette, and has only started one Premier League game. Dortmund were one of the teams who wanted Giroud last summer – along with Marseille, Besiktas and Everton – but he stayed put.

Now Arsenal want to use that interest to persuade Dortmund to sell them Aubameyang, who was left out of Dortmund's squad to face Hertha Berlin on Friday as the German club believe he is “not fully focussed”. “Aubameyang is training in Dortmund,” sporting director Michael Zorc explained. “At the moment we get the impression that his mind is on other things and he isn’t completely focussed. Which naturally raises the question of whether he can help us in Berlin.”

Despite Aubameyang’s well-publicised disciplinary issues with Dortmund, the German giants are still reluctant to lose comfortably their best striker in mid-season. That is why they want so much money. They know that Giroud is not a direct replacement, and would not be eligible for their Europa League knock-out stage campaign. Dortmund are considering fast-tracking a move for Lautaro Martinez, the talented 20-year-old striker who plays for Racing Club in Argentina. It was planned for the summer but may now be brought forward for this month.

Wenger was asked about the possibility of a Giroud-Aubameyang swap at his Thursday morning press conference and gave a cryptic answer, saying that questions starting with the word “if” can cover “many theories”, and that “at the moment I cannot tell you much more”.

But Wenger was unusually open about his own interest in Aubameyang, saying that he had “nothing to add” to reports and that he would wait to announce anything until the deal was “over the line”. But Wenger defended Aubameyang’s character from criticism. “I believe overall you look at the achievements of a player during his career,” Wenger said, “and usually, when a career has been very positive, the character has been used in a positive way.”

Aubameyang wants to leave Dortmund this month (Getty)

Wenger hopes that this can still be a positive window for Arsenal, even as they face the prospect of losing Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United this week. With Henrikh Mkhitaryan set to come the other way, Wenger feels that another addition like Aubameyang or Malcom can make this a month where the team actually improves. “The target is yes,” Wenger said, when asked if Arsenal can emerge from the window stronger. “But only the future will tell.”

While the sale of Sanchez to United has echoes of selling Robin van Persie the same way in 2012, Wenger said it was not as bad, because of Mkhitaryan coming the other way.

“I would say that our fans know Alexis will not extend his contract and they have accepted that idea,” Wenger said. “And the fact it will not be one-way traffic, it will be other way traffic as well. So that makes the whole thing a bit smoother, maybe, a bit less disappointing. We lose a player, yes, but we could gain another player.”

But Wenger admits that the way football is going, Arsenal will have to be more creative in the transfer market. “We have to revisit the way we structure our club, and our scouting policy,” he said. “You look at world-class players now, you look at Ronaldo, Neymar, Sanchez, their level of financial demands and the level of their costs, you have to go younger and certainly these players are not affordable.”

The time has passed when Arsenal can find the best gems in the transfer market. Instead, they have to off the young players the best chance. “That is more difficult nowadays because the competition is everywhere, it is very big,” he said. “What is important today is that we are the club that can maybe give them a chance, more than many other clubs.”