Arsenal signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been accused of purposely playing below his best to force through an exit from Borussia Dortmund, according to the Bundesliga club's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.

The Gabon international was suspended for disciplinary issues on more than one occasion during the first half of the season. His actions eventually forced Dortmund to sell him to the Gunners for £56m on deadline day.

Having lost numerous stars in the last two years, Watzke has put his foot down and said Aubameyang will be the last player to hold the club to ransom.

Watzke told Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung: "On Thursday, I laid it on the line for the squad — the next player who does something like that will fail miserably

"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 to him because in 2016 he opted for us and decided against very lucrative offers amid the departures of [Mats] Hummels, [Ilkay] Gundogan and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan."