Borussia Monchengladbach have paid tribute to departing midfielder Granit Xhaka, whose signing by Arsenal was officially announced earlier today.
The Swiss international joined the Bundesliga side from FC Basel in 2012, and played a total of 141 competitive appearances for the club.
His long-rumoured move to North London has now gone through, and speaking to their official site Borussia’s sporting director Max Eberl said, “We’re losing a very, very good player. We would like to thank Granit for his hard work and dedication at Gladbach over the last four years and wish him great success at his new club in London.”
Eberl also spoke about how the money would be susing, saying, “The agreed transfer fee provides us with the opportunity to make sensible additions to our squad.”
Although as usual Arsenal have said the fee is undisclosed, it’s believed to be in the region of £24m, rising to £30m with add-ons and bonuses.
Via his Facebook page, Xhaka said his goodbyes also.
“Now it’s official, from next season on I will play for Arsenal. I want to thank everyone at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Together we brought the club back to where it belongs, to the Champions League. I will always look back with pleasure to that time.
“But from now on I’m totally focused on playing at one of the biggest clubs in the world. It’s a big honour for me to wear the Arsenal jersey, as well as it has been an honour to play for Gladbach in the last four years.
“I hope we see each other again in the Champions League!”
Denounce Granit #GoodbyeXhunt
…well that was fucking weird.
I’d like to think people assume I am a bitter Gladbach fan and not just a d*ckhead
Think I’ve successfully nailed the latter though sadly
Not mutually exclusive things. Thanks for Xhaka.
Well noted @eyeliner..and I concur with your point…
Losing a good player but getting good money in return
Their loss our gain.
I hope we see Gladbach in the Champions League too!
It would make a f***ing change for once
They were in the CL this season, in Man city’s group. They finished bottom though.
Think he meant for us in particular. I mean wouldn’t it be typical to play a group with olympiakos, bayern/dortmund and Marseille.
Am I the only one who thinks the constant Grudge matches (arsenal/barca, arsenal/bayern, chelsea/psg etc) are a little strange You’d think there’d be more variety with this many teams
Just to add to my last point what are the odds that if chelsea had finished top 4 instead of spurs they’d get basel in the group stage who probably go into to the europa league and play spurs for the hundredth time. I swear to god this is some glitch in the matrix shit….
At least we won’t see Chelsea/PSG this coming season.
[crying all the way to the bank]
Anyone actually know an article that has in depth knowledge about the player from the German side of things?
If you speak German, this article is worth a read: http://www.watson.ch/!945440589
There’s even a picture of Robert Pires at the end!
Thankyou kind sir! I will use google translate haha.
Also what I can tell you, being Swiss, is that from the U17 World Champions Shaqiri and Xhaka were the outstanding talents when they eventually broke through at Basel. Shaqiri always got more headlines than his colleague, obviously because he’s an offensive player and he was really very good back then. They both moved to the Bundesliga at the same time, Shaqiri choosing spectacular FC Bayern whereas Xhaka’s transfer to M’gladbach was widely seen as “the easier option”. In his first couple of seasons at the club he couldn’t keep his mouth shut in the media, which got him in… Read more »
Shaqiri has class but lacks work ethic, ergo plays for Stoke.
If he screwed his head on properly and the penny drops that adding a little more work ethic to his abilities would realise his undoubted talent, then I’d have him at The Arsenal too. We’ve cornered the French, Spanish and German markets over the past two decades, why not the Swiss-Albanian too?
Actually, suggesting that Stoke players have class but no graft sound plain fucking weird, yet still not as weird as a Stoke team sheet that features Butland, Johnson, Imbula, Afellay, Bojan, Arnautovic and Shaquiri. That simply does not leave enough room for a crack division of clogger fuck knuckles, does it?!
They’re literally trying to BUY their way out of the prison-style pummelball club reputation they have, wow.
he looks small in Arsenal Jersey
Maybe he should wear a Guernsey then
It’s practically guaranteed that we’ll play his old team in the CL…
Along with Barcelona, Bayern and Olympiakos?
Got a really good feeling about this one, haven’t had a big strong presence in defensive midfield since Vieira/Silva, and he loves a tackle too, just what we need!
Welcome Xhaka!!!!!!
Agreed Sam, we needed a bit more in central midfield, too often it has looked a bit dysfunctional inbrecent seasons. Hope Arsene will continue in this vein
Granit Granit Granite …can you Gran(I)t us trophies. Yes Xha can!
Thought that was Dortmund saying bye to Reus as he signs for Arsenal
all good..just hope is not injury prone!
Just waiting for the Xhaka shatters pelvis signing for Arsenal story now.
Time for Carzola to move upfield.
What? Let’s not complicate things here, just play Cazorla in his usual position alongside Xhaka, completely boss possession, and create the perfect platform for Ozil to shine!
Ca-ZOR-la. C, A, Z, O, R, L, A.
I’m sure Xhaka Khan provide some much needed, Granit-like solidity to our midfield. Until Wenger puts him on the wing…
Mushroom!
More shit puns, please?
Poos.
I mean, “oops”.
Poo.
Likes giving himself selection dilemmas when alls fit wenger lol. No complaints here, should allow us to really tailor pick our midfield for specific opponents if we need to.
He looks like a combine of our jack and ronaldo
Did our new boy ever play Elnenny at Basel FC?
Maybe that’s what Arsene has envisioned for our new look middle.
Did our new boy ever play with Elnenny at Basel FC?
Maybe that’s what Arsene has envisioned for our new look middle.
Between Alexis and Xhaka, The Arsenal store can breathe a sigh of relief now for the overbearing backlog of “X”‘s in storage….
To be fair, they got those in when the Mexes rumours were ongoing in the tat rags for what seemed like the history of world wars
C’MON Granit, lets smash the league this time…
Sounds like the strong leader in the middle that Michael Owen has been saying we need.
He better not be the player Micheal fuckin’ Owen thinks we need.
We will see him how he is going to do in the field
Xhaka-Coq, Xhaka-Santi,Xhaka-Elneny combo looks interesting especially against teams that have always bullied Arsenal -Chelsea and Stoke immediately comes to mind.
As I have mentioned, Granit is really a DM. Elneny is not one.
Likely we will line up in midfield as follows :
AttackingMid : Ozil, Ramsey
CentralMid : Santi, Jack
DefensiveMid : Coquelin Granit
Utility : Elneny Zelalem
That’s not an entirely crowded midfield considering how injury prone we tend to be. We will need all these players to play a part.
So where does Alexis Sanchez fit in?