Mikel Arteta does not want Granit Xhaka to leave this winter.
Mikel Arteta has maintained his stance on the future of Granit Xhaka as the midfielder continues to be linked with a move away.
Xhaka has reportedly agreed to join Hertha Berlin in this transfer window with Arsenal holding up the move.
The Germans are doing all they can to complete the move, but Arsenal seems to want to keep him much longer.
Arteta has insisted from day one that he loved the Swiss midfielder and wants him to stay, however, Xhaka has been non-committal.
Arteta was recently asked again if he wanted Xhaka to remain and reiterated his desire to keep him at the Emirates.
When questioned on Xhaka’s future Arteta replied, per Talksport: “I hope not.
“He played at Bournemouth, he played really well, he was very committed, he played a really good game.
“After the game he started to feel ill. He had a temperature and he wasn’t feeling good. The last two days he was in bed. That’s why he hasn’t been selected.”
Without Xhaka, Arsenal struggled to see out their game against Chelsea as the Blues came from behind in the last seven minutes to beat them at the weekend.
Xhaka may not go this January but it is hard to see how he has a long term future at the Emirates. Bridges have been burnt and as soon as his form drops or another bad tackle or penalty conceded then I suspect the fans will make their feelings known once again.
There is also the fact that Xhaka is not top class and Arsenal do need an upgrade.
Cannot wait for him to leave! Why do we always hang on to flops for so long?
Xhaka isn’t up to scratch but sadly he is the calibre of player that we can attract. Surely Arsenal fans are still not that deluded. Look where we are in the league after today we can be as low as 14th. We are a bottom half team, better realise it quickly.
There’s lots of reasons why we are terrible and if Arteta is begging him to stay it’s because he knows we can’t get better. We don’t have the money to buy better simple.
Im not a Xhaka fan at all but who are we going to get that’s better? Realistically. Also he has the respect of his team mates so go figure
Whilst I agree that we’ll struggle to bring in top quality players, but replacing Xhaka will not be difficult at all! He has been so bad that we could easily find a better midfielder in the Championship, for less than 5 million.
I agree maybe for next season but a championship player half way through the season won’t work. Getting up to speed with the league. Also human elements like new team mates, living in a new area etc. Means sadly Xhaka is our man.
I feel for Arteta seems as though he is going round to all the players asking them to stay and they are downing tools. Then add the injuries what a mess
if dortmund can buy a whole new first-class toppling for about 70 million and Leicester can always find superb midfielders one after the other I don’t believe arsenal can’t attract better but Xhaka isn’t as bad as the fans think
We can just not half way through a season. It’s very rare a player hits the ground running from day one
@jdawg i do not agree that we cannot get better! Xhaka is highly rated in Europe and would always do well in a less intense slower league like Bundesligue and Serie A. So therefore we can get £30m for him and in return we should invest in an up and coming talent like Boubakary Soumare (£20m) and do loan deal for either or both Rabiot and Can from Juve. We just need to be shrewd as a club and get players in and sell them the vision of Arteta. If we are so impressed by his talk then why cant these footballers not be on board with his vision?
Unless they know he is talking complete bullsh*t and its just another con to keep the fans happy and the club will now just be the equivalent of a West Ham version of North London!
That explains why Arsenal are becoming mediocre. How does Arteta think we got here? Keeping players of his caliber is how.
He is not suited to PL, Arteta needs to see this and move him on.
Xhaka is the “Midfield Mustafi” and all the King’s horses and all the Kong’s men won’t make him valuable again.
He’s had a poor Arsenal career, so FFS let him sulk his way back to the Bundesliga.
About time Arsenal scouts and recruitment earnt their money.
The loss of Sven Mislantat may still end up being the biggest mistake Arsenal has made since the forced departure of David Dein.
Ozziegunner I agree 100%. Sven leaving is a big loss, and laughable to think Raul or Edu better at spotting talent.
Edu did great with Martinelli, but it’s been radio silence since.
Rather hear Arteta discussing how he’ll bring in Martinelli, or tune Willock up, rather than trying to shine a turd like Xhaka.
Remember the simple maths;each win is equivalent to three draws.
Let’s hope a run of wins is coming.
Real Madrid are rumored to be interested in a 17 years old DM from Rennes FC, Eduardo Camavinga. The kid is also a left-footed DM like Xhaka, who possesses good long range passing ability as well
We have seen how Arteta used Xhaka in the field, by moving him between left DM and left CB positions. Camavinga could also play that role and be Xhaka’s replacement
He is a great up and coming talent and if we bagged him he would make a great career at Arsenal alongside Saliba, Guiendouzi and Martinelli who all in the under 20 bracket!
Our biggest problem in this area is not Xhaka, it is that Xhaka and Torreira don’t have enough competition and Torreira only looks his best when he’s with Xhaka, every other pair seems to have teething problems. Fans are way too simplistic, we’ve already done the revolving door and guess what, it didn’t work, in fact we’re worse off and would probably be bottom of the table if not for Aubameyang. When we took Xhaka after Mustafi being out of the side, we dropped again, but I believe Xhaka made more difference than Mustafi there because in defence only CC has had some sort of leveling effect. Fans will sing this tune and ignore it all because it’s what they’ve banged on about for so long, do I want upgrades, of course I do, but I can see that the biggest problem isn’t going to lie within our best CM double act, it is a larger issue.
Also, before having a pop about whether you want Arteta to sell or keep Xhaka – If we are intending to sell Xhaka ..what would you expect a selling team to sound like ..when trying to get the best possible price. Above made a very good point, most players who come in will need readjustment period, so the safe bet would be to sell Xhaka in the summer and bring in the replacement now if we can, who knows, we might look different with more competition in there.