Granit Xhaka is ready to quit the Emirates this summer, with Roma believed to be confident of landing the Arsenal midfielder.
Gianluca di Marzio claimed that Jose Mourinho was keen on bringing the 28 year-old to Roma this summer, where he takes up his first job in Serie A since winning the treble with Inter Milan back in 2010.
The Portuguese has spent the last eight years in the UK, managing Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham during that time, so it would be no shock to ehar that he is confident signing players from the market.
Xhaka is one who divides opinion. The midfielder earned a place in the CIES Premier League Team of the Season, while many fans consider him to be a liability, with some of his mistakes having proven costly during the campaign.
With the interest from Jose however, Football.London claims that our former club captain ‘has signalled’ his intent to leave the club.
The report adds that Arsenal wish to start negotiations at £20 Million, with the intention of clearing up the situation before Xhaka heads off to the European Championships.
Dani Ceballos has already left the first-team squad after concluding his second loan spell with the club this season, which will leave our options light in midfield, and we were already believed to be keen on bolstering that area of the team.
Patrick
Thank goodness, it is finally going to happen. A player who swears on the pitch to his own fans, countless faults in dangerous areas and one who slows down our game. Would he walk into the invincibles? Not make it to their practice squad either. One or two long range passes does not qualify his as a deep lying playmaker. Good riddance! Not his fault for signing for us, that was always his level, blame the scouts and manager who signed him. At 28 he wont get better and younger. Take the cash and run away from Rome.
Nevertheless, wish him luck, prosperity and good things to achieve in the immediate and future.
My thoughts exactly. But especially the one about getting him gone!(“good riddance”) It is true that some fans rate him. I feel sorry for their faulty minds.
Cost us Champions League in Brighton game when Emery was manager by giving away the most reckless penalty I’ve ever seen. I will be gad when he is gone. For Arsenal he was a ponderous liability….so slow. 5mph footballer, slowed us down for years.
We saw the best and the worst of Xhaka and a move away would benefit both parties. People give Xhaka alot of hate but in all honesty hes better than all our other cms bar Partey but he has out performed the former Athletico man this season. Arsenal must invest in two top drawer cms if Xhaka is to go as he would be an excellent 2nd choice lcm. Bissoma and Tielemans in.
I’ve said before – the problem isn’t that he’s an awful player, the problem is that he’s been our go-to central midfielder for years because there’s been no one better. He’s not bad, he’s actually capable of being extremely effective, he’s just not consistent enough to be relied on, and not the leader he and some of the managers seem to think.
We need to fix this area of the pitch badly and we need to replace him with someone who *can be relied on to play consistently well, make few mistakes and lift his teammates even when things are going badly.
He’s a lot like Bellerin, capable of playing well and just often enough that it took a long time for people to question their place in the side, but overall it’s pretty mediocre. I guess Bellerin hasn’t made so many glaring mistakes, but hey ho
I suspect this move will happen, and I hope it does, not because Xhaka is not a good footballer, but because a change is needed to provide more pace, energy and drive from central midfield.The fact that we are better balanced with Xhaka in the side is an indictment on the lack of quality options available in central midfield.Personally I feel Guendousi and Willock are better options than Ceballos, Elneny and Torrerria but unfortunately our Manager took a different view and sent them off to further their education.I can understand the stance taken with Guendousi who I suspect will be sold with relative ease but I do hope Willock is given a chance next season to show his form at Newcastle was not a flash in the pan.Soumare, who would have been a left footed upgrade on Xhaka seems to be on his way to Leicester , where their recruitment team are vastly superior to our lot.
If this is all that we speak about our players then who is going to buy them? we better keep it until we sell that’s when we can say some of these comments.
Makes perfect sense that Jose, the bus parking specialist, would want the Swiss pylon…I feel for the Roma fans as they have seen some fairly expansive football in recent years, so the notion of Jose teaming up with Xhaka sounds like an unwatchable snooze-fest…that said, I could be wrong, in that Serie A is no longer the defensive-minded League it once was, so it might be the perfect place for these two underwhelming figures(no disrespect to Jose, who has a stellar CV, but has lost the room 3 times in the last 5 plus years) to flourish…if so, that would be a clear statement about the piss-poor state of Italian football
Best for both parties, he isnt an Arsenal player and never will be.
Now we will see how other managers rate him, remember we paid 35 mil for him, whats he going to net us?