According to a report in German publication Bild, Granit Xhaka has informed his Arsenal teammates that he’ll be leaving the club in January.
They claim that Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin are willing to smash their transfer record to sign the Switzerland international by offering the Gunners €45 million.
As Arseblog columnist Lewis Ambrose says, it seems unlikely, but not impossible.
“Hertha got a new ambitious investor in the summer, so it’s not impossible. It seems a weird one though – their transfer record (set in the summer) is €20m and that’s the only time they’ve ever spent more than €10m on someone.”
Xhaka has a contract at the Emirates until 2023 but there’s little to suggest he’s wed to sticking things out that long. He was obviously irked at the way he was stripped of the captaincy after reacting badly to being jeered off by supporters in November’s draw with Crystal Palace.
While he’s since returned to action, a return to the Bundesliga, where he previously starred for Borussia Moenchengladbach, would make sense. More so than a move to Newcastle or AC Milan who were both also tipped to make an approach.
A pre-Christmas return for the poo-ometer. He could well go. But he might be a stretch for Hertha’s budget.
45m? Yes please.
That would be fantastic business indeed. And give us some budget for a midfielder – or left-back?
left back? We have two. We can’t be focusing on a signing there.
Kola to go in the summer. Gases after 60mins
I would keep Xhaka and let Torreira go.
Emery is that you? 😉
Nah – it’s Santori
Troll…
Xhaka is hopeless. I’d rather play arteta
Best news in many weeks, particularly because of the price quoted.
Considering his form and attirude, even half of that amount would be good enough.
no hertha, hands off, he’s captain material
Hehe. Suckers
Happy the poo-meter is back. Happy that Xhaka will go.
Yeah baby.
Or should i say, Ja baby!
45m for xhaka. Wow
Shhhh.. let them pay
How about 20m and their best cb?
10m and they also take Mustafi?
Ozil and Xhaka both rumoured to be leaving. I’d be happy with that if we got in a centre midfielder with legs that work. I’ve heard good things about (insert football manager 20 year old player here)
Suat Serdar, there’s your player to insert
Emmanuel Petit
Lookingvat ouf budget arteta probablu signs as player-manager
45m euros? Whatever they’re smoking in Berlin I want some, err, for medicinal purposes of course!
This story sounds like Swiss cheese: it’s full of holes. Xhaka isn’t worth 45p let alone 45 euros.
But I’d love it to be true.
Or even 45 million euros.
Not in our eyes, but with more and more investors entering football we’ll see more transfer market inflation so it’s perhaps not that unbelievable. Besides, he did well in Germany and is still well regarded here, and in the right team and system, and league, could be a key player.
@eric thw ultimate goldilocks player.
If Hertha thinks he’s worth that, then don’t tell them he isn’t man. You gotta keep your secrets secret.
To quote him: fuck off
He’s a man of little words…
Swap-deal with Salomon Kalou…
Ozil, and now Xhaka? Good news just keeps coming. Joggers begone.
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS FOR THEM TO BE GONE.
I will through party after party and give him fairwell party again so we have to pray that things go on well and they consider him their priority since he cant get settled in EPL.
Time will tell, but… it’s from Bild.
So, who are the ‘non-triers’ as they will now be known, who will be moved along unceremoniously?
Freddie said 6, didn’t he? We can assume Xhaka is one, Özil another, any ideas who else is in the firing line?
The problem is that the infected the rest of the squad. You start with 2 and may end up with 12, and some of them will be players we hoped they stayed. I feel a change is coming on !!
The fact he managed to sneak himself back into the team shows what a bad shape we are in at the moment. After his outburst and non apology, he should never have worn the Arsenal shirt again.
Let the clear up commence. I’m sure we can find a kid or 6 in the academy who will at least put in a better effort.
I disagree. He was right to react to the abuse he was getting. Some fans really needed to f off.
I’ll drive him. Time for a clean slate. 45 million is optimistic at best though.
I quite like Xhaka, I’m not blind to any of his flaws, and I certainly wouldn’t say no to a more dynamic, and less error prone upgrade, but that goes for any position….. He’s decent enough, and not as bad as some make out, but the baggage around him now, probably badly makes his future untenable However you could never fault his application, which can’t be said for a fair few inside our squad. If we get £35mill for Xhaka? Would you back Edu and Raul to use that money to upgrade? Or downgrade? As football fans we tend to… Read more »
All this talk about players leaving and hardly any about players coming in, along with a board as tight as arseholes is very worrying.
Sure we could have a whip round to pay for his travel to get there.
I’d carry his entire family on a rickshaw round the M25 to any airport if it helps get him out!
My first reaction to the title was good. Then I saw 45m I was like great! Is this how much average midfielders cost now though…
Don Arteta is whacking the heads of dressing room disorder!
Laters Granit!
If that happened for the quoted amount, it would be my favourite transfer since the acquisition of Dennis Bergkamp. To get rid of this cancer with a profit would not only be amazing, but also rather unexpected.
Call people cancer isn’t cool. That’s Nazi language. But apart from that, I agree.
It’s fans like you that he was telling to F@ck off. And I fully support that
45 million euros? Not a chance. Don’t get me wrong I’d fucking love it to happen.. But you know… It’s arsenal … we’ll sell him for 10 to 20 million euros max and be paying a portion of his wages…to be fair… Still kinda worth it
If this is true, best for both club and player. We need to find some hard running midfielders like literally every other club in England.
if they are willing to give us £20m we should snap their hands off!!
Lets not do that, they are doing a good thing here, we need not eat them for it.
At least he might get a skills video with all the whores of Malta on it
He’s a massively flawed player but he’s still comfortably our best midfielder currently. The only one with an ounce of positional sense and acknowledgement of the limitations of his role. Our midfield 100% of the time looks utterly lost without him (OK, sometimes it does with him too). The fans fucked up in this case. £45m is a very good price, but that would absolutely have to be invested in 1 (ideally 2) midfielders with some nouse and athleticism straight away. If there are no targets available this Jan then we need to keep him until the summer. If we… Read more »
Hertha Berlin are in for a shock. They will say 45mn for Xhaka, and we will say take Xhaka, Ozil, and Luiz for that amount.
What’s that you say? Taxi for a Mr Xhaka? Form an orderly queue, boys…
Have we finally met a club who are even worse at negotiating a good deal than us?
Hahah that price sounds unreal, lets see.
Great news, everyone
Is herta berlin our new best friend? If they think xhaka is worth 45m, we could work ouf a 100m package for xhaka, ozil and mustafi
45m? lol. no chance we’ll get that… I mean… oh no, please don’t sell him! He’s irreplaceable!
I think he was more irked by the threats against his family on the Internet by fans.
Off you go then. Tata