Allardyce adds Aubameyang to Beckham and Modric on his tried-to-sign list

Aubameyang scored a brace as Arsenal claimed a thrilling 3-2 victory over Everton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.The Gabonese striker's second made it 17 league goals for the season, placing him as joint top-scorer in the Premier League.The Gunnerscaptain joined from Borussia Dortmund on deadline day in January 2018 for £58m.But 'Big' Sam Allardyce claims that was only after he'd tried to do a deal for Aubameyang whilst he was managing Everton."I tried to buy him at Everton,"Allardyce told talkSPORT."It was about £60m or £70m I think. We were searching for goals after [Romelu] Lukaku went and just wanted to test the waters."We spoke through his agent, and we had a shout that he was apparently desperate to get away from Germany and get into the Premier League."So we thought we’d have a dab, but we didn’t get very far to be fair."Allardyce can add Aubameyang to an impressive list of names that he's apparently tried to do deals for.When David Beckham was leaving Real Madrid in 2007, Allardyce sounded out a move to bring him to Bolton."The move would have probably paid for itself such is David’s corporate influence within football," he said."But the fact was that the only Premier League club he would have come back to was Manchester United."Big Sam also says in his autobiography that he was close to signing Luka Modric for Newcastle before he eventually signed for Tottenham."I had got the staff in place and we were ready to rock and roll," he tells."What we needed was bigger and better players, like a Luka Modric. Modric was in our training ground, having a look around."READ MORE...How Mikel Arteta's blank slate is helping every Arsenal player to thriveAndy Mitten column: Are Manchester United beginning to blossom under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?