It has been reported for some time now that Arsenal’s interest in Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Granit Xhaka is at an advanced stage.
There have been stories detailing his transfer fee, his salary, what his agents will get and more, and today Sport1 in Germany suggest that everything is almost done.
However, quotes from the player and Borussia’s sporting director suggest that things are a little way from being complete yet.
Max Eberl admitted there were clubs interested but said they would try and hang onto the 23 year old Swiss international.
“We will fight for Granit,” he told Kicker. “There are clubs how can offer an even bigger chance of playing Champions League and competing for titles and trophies.”
While Xhaka himself was playing his cards very close to his chest, going so far as to say that no offers had been made yet for his services.
“What happens is not entirely down to me,” he said. “I can only say that I am really happy here, and my contract runs through to 2020. Until today, no offer has been made.
“To be honest, I didn’t think about it in the past weeks. And I believe you could see that on the pitch,.
“Should something come up, we’d possibly sit down and decide what happens. And if nothing comes up, everything fits here at Borussia.”
So, there you go. It’s all as clear as mud. Delicious mud.
Yawn. Come back at the start of next season. Then we’ll know for sure about him and whoever else we’ve signed.
The poo meter is stuck at 10 until it’s announced here, on the BBC or arsenal.com
Sadly I have to agree with this. Transfer windows has been the biggest let down the past couple seasons and is mainly Arsene’s biggest criticism. Sanchez, Ozil and Cech were great buys don’t get me wrong but more often than not we leave 2-3 players short going into the season. And most times there will be one world class signing before season renewal is up, and right after everything goes stale and there is suddenly no quality in the market. I’ll try my best to steer clear of rumours this summer until the season starts (hah who am I kidding)
99%+ of rumours (in articles on the web) won’t happen, that’s a fact. The articles are clickbait.
Get a life over the summer instead and only check trusted sites as above.
Arsenal media watch is basically the club trolling fans. “Here’s a list of players we won’t be buying”
Every close season we are linked to over 100 players. Each player will have many articles covering their unlikely acquisition by Arsenal (one dodgy site will follow the next in saying a player will come to Arsenal, so as not to lose out). Even at a conservative 10 articles per player linked that is 1,000 articles (and I’m understating it).
Even if we buy 5 players (unlikely) then that is 200 articles per player bought.
So stick to a reliable site (see the suggestions above) and save yourself the bother.
Theoretically, there are much better things to do in the summer and, theoretically, the real football starts when the season starts.
‘Real’ football season for Arsenal is tediously predictable, though, so what the hell – let the speculation begin!
It is called Silly Season for a reason, no?
BTW, a suggestion for my fellow heart-broken Gooners and Goonerettes: take some real time off this off-season. Don’t follow all the scripted twist and turns of the reality show that is BPL in the English Media. Chiefly the “Silly Season 2016” episode. It’s going to be rubbish and won’t resemble anything like the reality of the first week of August, 2016.
So, why get your knickers in a twist? Innit pinchy on the bits?
If we can add Draxler along then that would be a real coup.
Oh no, not Draxler again ! For two years, Draxler was said to be an Arsenal player for the following season then the guy renewed his contract with Dormund. Please put this to rest whatever his quality.
Love to be that guy, but Draxler never played for Dortmund. He was at Schalke when we were apparently interested, and is now at Wolfsburg.
He plays for Wolfsburg.
Dortmund? Do you mean their rivals Schalke? Then Wolfsburg lately? That or I’m having whatever it is you’re on.
Maybe we can get Tevez too. Remember how long that saga went on?! oh sorry…Higuain is the new Tevez. Though I do wonder who ‘THE striker Arsenal is going to sign’ this year is going to be.
Sebastian Frey to fill in for Ospina?
I wonder how Masal Bugduv’s getting on these days? We never did sign him after all those rumours.
Are you sure you mean Draxler? Kind of sounds like you’re talking about Reus.
He’s injury-prone and not actually that good, so no. Just because a player commands a high fee doesn’t mean they’re an upgrade over what we have.
You know what would be a real coup? Kante. He is the real deal,we miss a midfield general like him.
It’ll be a done deal on deadline day.
Not even that, Wenger will come out in a couple of weeks and say: I have Wilshere, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Cazorla. Ox and Chambers can also play there. Even Iwobi and Jeff Reine-Adelaide can play there. I have plenty of midfield players, I don’t need to buy just for buying.
You could say if it comes down to a choice between staying where he is or coming to us, he would be caught between a rock and a hard place
you could, but wouldn’t
Where’s the striker we so badly need
Giroud?
Yeah where the hell is that striker?! We only have four months left until the window shuts!
To be honest, it is hard so see him fit in. I doubt he’d come unless guarantees of playtime are made but I doubt it will be done as technically, we have Coq, Ramsey, Elneny, Wilshere and Santi competing for 2 places. Even if we are struck by injuries as hard as we usually are, two or three of the current crop should be (and more or less was) avaliable. For me, it only makes sense if Wenger sees him as an upgrade on Coq (as I don’t think he would demote anyone else), but Xhaka doesn’t struck me as… Read more »
Wrote pretty much the same comment until I spotted yours, so yes. Bring Xhaka and 17 other central midfielders, but sneak in a striker just in case Welbeck gets injured again, leaving Walcott as Giroud’s only competition. Perhaps make it a striker a notch above Giroud. I realise Arsenal is not going to be a top striker’s first choice given our results and apparent uncertainty surrounding Wenger (for the record, i’m in the WKB camp), but then again this is a good time to be shopping for top players with much of the traditional top 4-5-6 English teams not being… Read more »
Xhaka is definitely different from our current mildfield. For one, he adds height and he is a physical player. Two, he has great vision and passing abilities, especially his long passes. His only weakness is his discipline, he loses him temperature and has had a few red cards this season however he’s the type of player who wears his heart on his sleeve and gives his all. He’s captain of his current team. IMO we could use him next season.
He’s loses his temper*
Fucking autospell ?
You can always read it through before you post.
And ‘mildfield’ describes our current play very well.
Well at arsenal there is never too many players for any position. Wenger might want to shift Ramsey to the RW position where he has looked far better this season, Wilshere can’t be counted on and would play box-to-box/backup to Ozil. Cazorlas form and fitness are unknown after a long injury, Elneny can play both CM positions and Coq is a pure DM but Xhaka would surely bench him. So DM: Xhaka, Elneny, Coq CM: Cazorla, Wilshere, (Elneny), (Ramsey) With the amount of matches per season and the usual injuries they all would probably get enough matches and there would… Read more »
I personally don’t think Wilshere should compete for the deep lying midfielder spots. He should be a rotation option for Ozil. Santi/El Neny and Ramsey are all competing for the non DM spot if you ask me. El Neny doesn’t have a great tackle on him like coquelin does. He’s got the energy like ramsey to press and seems more disciplined.
I disagree. Wilshere’s best (at least yet) came in the deep-lying position both for England (where he really thrived) and for us (in his first season, the only one where he really stood out from the pack – though it was more of a box-to-box role than a deep-lying, but not in the Ozil-role). I definietly think his best position lies deeper than Ozil’s; if any of our current players should be a rotation option for the German, it would be Santi imo.
Xhaka is the new Cabaye
Getting his sister Chaka in the deal would be awesome.
Boom.
What do you think about a bid for Lukaku instead?
Nothing.
We could do with a rock in midfield
An actual fucking rock.
Complete bollocks. This guy doesn’t have an injury.
If we do end up getting him it’ll be on deadline day because two first teams members were injured on opening day due to the grass being 0.001mm higher than usual.
97% of the comments here used to make you think and generally made a valid point…seems like we’ve gone the way of other sites now. “Arfene need go, no buy Lukaku or Marez”.
Maybe I’m just even more cynical in my old age. But i miss the old days. Bring back the spine of Almunia, Silvestre, Denilson and Bendtner.
OI VENGA SIGN HEGWAYEEEN
needs more Asharvin
I miss the Christopher Samba rumors too!
I love this site, but know what you mean. When we lose, there’s almost twice as many comments as when we win. Blogs, any stats on that? Get 7amkickoff or Orbinho on it!
Natural response – people have more to say when we lose. There’s generally more to discuss. We can’t control human nature 😉
I only blame Arsene personally for two things, not getting Suarez and not winning the league this year. I’ve gobbled up all the excuses all the other years but those two things were certainly achievable and whould have changed things for us the fans.
Maybe I am an idealist, but I’m still happy that we didn’t sign Suarez. A fine striker to be sure, but the same cannot be said of him as a person.
On failing to sign another striker other than him? That’s a different story.
sure, Suarez is a nasty little b*gger once he crosses the white line, willing to do almost anything to gain a competitive advantage, but have you considered that maybe Arsenal could do with a bit more of that kind of spirit?
Too many nice guys in the squad
I believe there is a difference between being cynical at the appropriate times, having a strong constitution and acting like a deplorable human being. Just because I don’t want one of our team biting or hurling racial abuse at other players, it doesn’t mean I want us to make every game a pleasant experience for the opponents.
Also, you have to take dressing room matters into consideration. Sometimes disruption there (as anywhere) can be a good thing, but I can’t help but think that his antics may have had a negative impact overall from that perspective.
I don’t get it. If this is true this would be a buy based on potential not proven quality. He does not have experience in the premiership.
Is this the type of player Arsene really needs to be buying in his final season to try and win trophies?
Probably conjecture, Xhak it in the bin.
Though he would be a nice addition, I’ll Granit you that.
I like puppies.
He’s nearly as good as John Jenson, I’m told!
Put me with the people who will believe it when it’s on the official site. With transfer gossip being it’s own industry now and based on so little actual facts there is almost no point in even trying to work out what has a basis in some truth and what is completely fabricated. I’m just too old to get any way invested in any transfer speculation when 99% of the time that will just end in disappointment. I’m always a bit surprised at how many people predominantly blame Arsene or Arsenal for the Suarez transfer. By most believable accounts he… Read more »
More like Poo-m Xhakalaka… Where’s the poometer I asks ya
Guys, it’s been done since Higuain was signed.
Toni Kroos is fluent in English.
FYI and stuff.
Still mad Tevez & Mascharano went to West Ham.
Don’t get me started on the Alonso saga. It’s been years and I’m still regularly pondering on what if’s.
Alonso case was the craziest of them all. 4-3-3 with Cesc, Alonso and Diaby/Song would’ve been good enough to win the league.
I don’t see the need in this position.
We have Ox, Campbell, Iwobi AND Alexis not to mention Gnabry is starting to show the form he left before injury.
We have priorities at Cback and right up top, possibly for another DM as Elneny isn’t physical enough or a DM to be honest.
We will only sign 2 players…A DM and a wide forward/cb. Wenger will stick with Welbeck and Giroud hoping both turn to Henry and Drogba or even worse, he pulls the stunt he did with signing only Cech and talking about team spirit and automatism as our new acquisitions.
Anyway we’ll have Welbeck back for the start of the season so he’ll be like a new sighning!! Sigh!!!!
Don’t count on it :’-(
Handsome fellow. I’ll take anything that improves our standings of having the best looking outfield in the league!
Pls can some pls tell me if we need players like Ramsey and giroud in arsenal these players can never make a place in the top ten teams in the world, they are not technically sound
“There are clubs how can offer an even bigger chance of playing Champions League and competing for titles and trophies.”
So not us then, lads. Let’s move on. 😉
Ooh exciting. I wonder what seasonal disappointments Uncle Arsene has got up his sleeve. Alex Song on a free? Perhaps Frank Leboeuf to shore things up at the back for a couple of seasons.
Would go well with his team mates demus & pliers. But that would be a tease.
Off topic.. but if theres one midfielder id like to see being given a chance its jon toral. Apparently they love him in Birmingham. Never actually see him play there but the occasional highlights. he seems like a level headed boy somewhat like iwobi. His good mate bellerin was a nice surprise so heres hoping he can do the same. Of course im all for new signings aswell, just some thoughts on the lad.
So I guess we’ll be reading about this transfer for the next few months then. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
I’d instead renew Rosickys contract. Save the money and try to buy a good striker.
Bayern just announced 2 signings. Why can’t Arsenal get their business done early? Because Arsene is counting the pennies.
This is just hard bored, arsenal won’t buy him it is just like tickling yourself and laugh, at the end of every season we are always linked with many players but it finishes by buying kalstrom or sanogo