Borussia Dortmund chief tears into Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang over Arsenal transfer

Borussia Dortmund have been picked apart in recent seasons, losing a huge number of their big-name players to European rivals.

Robert Lewandowski, Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have all departed the Bundesliga club in recent years and the exodus has continued this term.

Ousmane Demebele left in the summer for Barcelona, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang engineered a move to Arsenal just last month.

And Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has claimed enough is enough and openly criticised Dembele and Aubameyang for the way they went about leaving.

“On Thursday, I laid it on the line for the squad — the next player who does something like that will fail miserably,” Watzke told German newspaper FAZ.

“He’ll run into major problems.

“The next player who tries to put us under pressure by withholding performances or even going on strike will not get a pass and will instead sit in the stands.

“They are all aware of it. This is now a public statement.

“Following Dembele and Aubameyang, there is now an overriding interest for the club — we need to get a better structure into our squad again.

“Aubameyang committed himself to us for this season, especially as a reaction to Dembele’s transfer.

“But he also had the notion that we owed him because in 2016 he opted for us and decided against very lucrative offers amid the exits of Hummels, Gundogan and Mkhitaryan.”

When asked why the club eventually sanctioned Aubameyang’s move to the Gunners, Watzke replied: “Because we had the impression there will be no new start for him in the Ruckrunde [second half of the season].

“Not with the fans, not with the team. Too much had been damaged through his behaviour.”