Borussia Dortmund say they have decided to keep Henrikh Mkhitaryan for another season after weeks of speculation linking him with a move to the Premier League.
The Armenian midfielder, 27, is thought to have been contacted by Arsenal and Manchester United, however, in light of the sale of Ilkay Gundogan and Mats Hummels to Manchester City and Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga outfit are keen close the door on further big name departures.
Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said, “We at the club actively discussed the option of parting ways with Henrikh Mkhitaryan ahead of time, and we decided that he should stay at BVB also next season.”
Talks over a new deal at the Westfalenstadion – his current contract ends in 2017 – broke down recently which means the price on Mkhitaryan’s head is substantially lower than if he were tied down in the long-term.
Manchester United are thought to have bid in the region of €25 million and the player has apparently said Old Trafford is his preferred destination.
To the poo-o-meter…it’s not looking likely we’ll see this fella at the Emirates.
What the statement really means is that they want more for him. They can’t be crazy enough to lose £20m or so over a year, as his resale value will go down to zero then. So they are trying it on, in the hope someone is desperate enough to boost up their offer.
Not really, Dortmund have a history of getting plAyers to honour their contracts and try to challenge Bayern as opposed to selling him off and taking the money
I don’t know, can immagine that they don’t want to suffer to much in sports-perspective and that replacing up to four key players (hummels, gundogan, mkhitaryan and maybe aubamamamajgnz) would be to much for one summer.
“Aubamamamajgnz” Hahahaha!
Remember Lewandowski?
I wouldn’t be too sure about that – they did the same with Lewandowski when they could’ve got a transfer fee out of him.
OK, let’s see. Still crazy in my opinion.
If not he’s on a free next summer and on huge wages. So long as he maintains form he’s the winner.
They can’t compete financially so they have to suffer as well on the sport side,of late they have become a developmental club for bigger clubs, the bottom line is finance
Shouldn’t it be 1 pooh because it sounds bang in the money from the horses mouth too?
We’re in the same position with Koscielny and Cazorla.
Rambo, Alexis, Ozil, Chambo only have 2years left.
We need to convince them they can win where they are!
We need to convince Ramsey he’s not Roy of the Robers first. If he thinks he’s leaving us to go to Madrid or Barca, he’s got another thing coming.
Let’s go for a easier name to spell like Mahrez 🙂
We are more into Darxler than Mkhitaryan…the Armenian is good but he has a chronic finishing problem the never appears to ease despite reaching 27, .nevertheless he is good at disintegrating defense specially from the right side where we had a problem last season.
Yeah, he’s only scored 4 in his last 2 internationals and 11 league goals last season for Dortmund. Couldn’t hit a barn door xD
Good, he won’t go to United then.
Does that mean Aubameyang isn’t leaving either? He’d be the player I would take if I had my pick from the more realistic targets this summer.
No – he’ll go to Real Madrid next season and we’ll go in for Benzema.
I deserved the down-votes, to be fair.
Gallows humour and all that, what.
From the above picture, seems he fits well in Xhakas pockets….
Never saw this one happening.
fair play to them.
Draxler > this guy any day. Draxler would suit us perfectly. Can play on either flank, at #10 or at 6’2 he may even be able to do a job at striker (with some work.) Probably not as expensive either as he’s coming off a so-so season with Wolfsburg.
Is was pretty obvious that after losing 2 major players (Hummels & Gundogen) that Dortmund wouldn’t allow any more major departures in this window. Lose Mkhitaryan & you can almost guarantee Aubameyang will walk out as well. No club can afford to lose the entire spine of the team in one window. This is almost an identical situation to 3 seasons back when Gotze left & they decided to forego Lewandowski’s transfer fee & kept him at the club for another year.
So Hummels states today that he rejected manure as they’re playing Thursday night football on channel 5 and that The Arsenal didn’t make a bid, otherwise he would have been very interested.
Yep, we’re desperate for a quality centreback and we didn’t even bid. Dumbass transfer policy.
I simply do not see a requirement for him at Arsenal.
We have Ozila nd Ramsey.
Then Jack and Santi not to mention Elneny.
And Granit and Coquelin.
That’s a very packed midfield.
Also out wide we have Alexis with Iwobi/Campbell?Ox fighting for the other flank.
If say we bring in a Draxler to eventually convert to an RVP type striker, he can also play wide (as do Welbeck and Walcott at the moment)
It’s not priority.
Priority is striker and Cback IMO.