Roma chief Tiago Pinto claims that his biggest regret of the summer was missing out on Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka.
The Giallorossi were strongly linked with the Swiss international throughout the summer before he eventually signed new terms in North London included an extended contract.
Much of the reports claim that we stood firm on our fair asking price for his signature, only for Roma to try and undercut us, before they showed their financial might to sign Tammy Abraham for a sizeable fee, proving that they simply didn’t value Xhaka as highly as we did, and not that they were hard done-by with their budget.
The transfer windows are now closed, and Granit started the new campaign as captain against Brentford in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who had suffered a positive Covid-test, before starting the next three of our competitive matches also, and is now set to play a key role once again this season.
Pinto claims that he regrets not getting the deal over the line however, despite having a positive transfer window.
“The market is closed and today I have fun, because we bought so many players but everyone asks me about the midfielder,” Tiago said after the window’s deadline(via Goal.com).
“Everyone knows we were after Xhaka, he wanted to come to Roma, but Arsenal didn’t release him. It’s my regret for this transfer market.”
It remains to be seen whether Roma were eventually willing to pay our asking price or not, but it will likely be another 12 months of Xhaka playing a key role in our side, but I wouldn’t rule out an exit for him next summer despite his new deal.
Patrick
So he wanted to go
They wanted to sign him
We wanted to sell
So how on earth did we come to the conclusion that he’s now here for another 3 years and is captaining our team ,one of the must confusing situations I’ve seen at this club
Well said Dan, there can be no logical explanation.
“proving that they simply didn’t value Xhaka as highly as we did” Does anyone???
“One of the most confusing situations at the club” and there’s been a few of them!!
All of them know nothing.Only ARSENAL fans know which players are good.#bringozilback
Wenger paid 35m for a player who has disappointed the majority of Arsenal fans since his arrival, yet Edu and Arteta are crucified for turning down an offer of 14m euros?The fact that they extended the guy’s contract was done to protect his perceived value and is not a deterrent to his ultimate sale.If I ever happen to bump into the esteemed Mr Wenger I shall congratulate him on what he achieved for our Club and also ask him to comment on the signings of Xhaka and for that matter Mustafi.To me they were abject signings and proved to be a watershed for the downturn in our fortunes .
We couldn’t even get 20M for Xhaka,right after he had a very good Euros,not only that after another average season with Arsenal,a year older(30) his stock will never reach that level again and will keep decreasing,the fact that we kept him when we had a taker & extended his contract,I believe that it is only fair that he should now be considered as one MA signings from now on no??
“The fact that they extended the guy’s contract was done to protect his perceived value and is not a deterrent to his ultimate sale.”
WOW.. I thought no one would ever mention that.. Thank you…
“The fact that they extended the guy’s contract was done to protect his perceived value and is not a deterrent to his ultimate sale”.
That’s alright then if that’s what we are doing ,I mean who cares about results on the pitch with him in the team ,as long we are saving money .
And dont you think his value will decrease after this season anyway ,complete and utter negligence from our manager and his side kick edu ,nothing more nothing less ,perfect chance to rid us from him and the club couldn’t even get that right .
Let’s look at the facts:
– perceived value is exactly that, it’s not manipulated by the seller
– perceived value does not increase because a player now has signed a contract extension
– with his contract running down, only 1 club was mildly interested in him
– this was straight after his “fantastic” performances at the Euro
– he’ll be a year older and even slower at the end of the season
Despite all of the above, you think we’ll now miraculously get an offer for Xhaka that’s more than what Roma offered? Even though this window was the best possibility of getting him as cheap as possible?
For Xhaka, I’ll collect even £2million. His salary and performance do not match. 3yrs contract extension for back passing and red cards. I’ve never seen a Manager with awful decisions like Arteta
And what about the part played by the man who brought this mediocre liability to Arsenal? Not guilty in any way?It’s all down to Arteta?
Arteta talked Xhaka into staying last year, and extended him with a raise this year!
It’s all on Arteta now, can’t blame Wenger or Emery after this recent extension.
No interest except from Roma, and they clearly had the money, just didn’t value him more than the £12 million plus incentives.
Emery is blameless but Wenger is more than culpable for a horrendous error of judgement in bringing such a ponderous ,undisciplined player to our Club.You can slag off Arteta all you want but the real guilty party is a very wealthy ,retired Frenchman.
Oh aye Wenger is French and wealthy but not retired,the man still works.
I feel like we don’t spend enough time acknowledging the fact that this player actually openly “conspired” with Roma…by speaking publicly about the potential of such a move, in a rather flirtatious yet exceedingly obvious fashion, on a world stage no less, there’s no doubt that he was trying to help Roma secure his services on the cheap…of course, I would have happily taken the roughly 15M, but, as we all know, our club was unwilling to accept what they believed was a low ball” offer…in the end, Xhaka was actually rewarded for his weaselly maneuver, with an extension, a raise and the GD armband for our opening game
Spot on!
Roma never rated Him. After complaint about 20 mill they went further to sign Tammy 35+ incentives (40mill).
You have to take into account his age,his position (there is a premium for goalscorers),his resale value (80M buy back clause was inserted)he could end up being another Lukaku situation,there is no chance such a thing would never happened with Xhaka, actually quite his opposite his value will keep decreasing year on year.