According to reports in Germany, Granit Xhaka has arrived in Cologne to take a medical ahead of his proposed £21.5 million move to Bayer Leverkusen.
News broke in mid-May that the Switzerland international was likely to leave this summer and the midfielder was given a buoyant send-off by supporters as he signed off the last campaign with a brace against Wolves.
Since then, Xhaka has had to play a waiting game with the Gunners unwilling to sanction his sale until a replacement had been recruited.
Granit Xhaka (30) has arrived in Germany for his medical check for his Transfer to Bayer Leverkusen @BILD_Sport @Arsenal
— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) July 6, 2023
While negotiations with West Ham for Declan Rice have taken longer than expected to conclude, the England international is now booked in for his medical and should be a Gunner by the end of the week.
As such, all the pieces are in place for Xhaka to start the next chapter of his career.
After seven seasons at Emirates Stadium, Xhaka will depart with a brace of FA Cup and Community Shield medals to his name and 23 goals and 29 assists in 297 appearances.
Here’s Granit Xhaka in Germany in order to complete medical tests, spotted by @SportBild @CFBayern. 🔴⚫️🩺📸 pic.twitter.com/SbcYATPPCo
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 6, 2023
A redemption arc for the ages, shame it didn’t end in silverware, nether the less, he turned out to be class and I’m glad he got to leave with his head held high.
nether the less
Never 🙂
Niemals 🙂
Schade
scheissegal!
2 FA Cups isn’t Silverware??
Good luck in the future my captain, you had a hell of a season pushed up into the attack.
All the Granit. Your XhakaBooms will be remembered fondly.
Best of luck.big man
Not sure I’m excited by this news. Yes Xhaka’s sale would bring in some fresh funds into Arsenal’s coffers, but I would have loved the starting team of last season to remain untouched, with new additions only raising the overall quality of the squad. Harvertz may not be an instant success as Xhaka’s replacement.
Well, I guess the hierarchy know what they are doing. We’d just keep trusting the process.
That would’ve been amazing but I think only teams like Shitty can do that, sign expensive players and then expensive backups. And to be fair they did that earlier in Peps tenure with the 15 odd fullbacks for 60 million each they bought. Who knows, maybe we can still keep Partey which I wouldn’t mind one bit.
Thank you for your contributions to the Arsenal, Granit Xhaka, and all the best for your future.
This is a big day in Arsenal history.
Thanks for the 2 good seasons, but now, watch the team improvement, now that he’s no longer around
He had far more than 2 good seasons and he will be greatly missed. Personally think it’s a mistake.
Can’t say I’ve ever looked that cheerful heading to a “Medical Test”.
I will miss him dearly
Me too
Noooooooooooo
There’s barely any room for sentimentality in modern football, but it’s nice that he got a dignified exit, for all his faults you can never say he didn’t care. Now, who’s gonna be the team shithouse/big brother now?
Jorginho
He’s very much a backup/rotation. Gabriel is the guy. In Gabriel:
“I see pride, I see power, I see a badass mother that don’t take no crap from nobody”.
Shall we talk about GJesus and Ben White?
Timber
Odegaard evil version
Like a Hollywood film the redemption arc was an epic good-un. Good luck Granit you beautiful mad man.
Okay! So we have massively upgraded the Xhaka role with Rice, cool! We have added Harvetz as an upgrade to Fabio Viera, signed Timber as cover for Saliba, Gabriel and White as the case may be, cool. Let’s keep Partey and sign Ciacedo, Lavia or someone else as cover and I will be very optimistic about this season.
Rice is an addition to midfield not a replacement for anyone, Havertz is a replacement for Xhaka not Vieira, Timber is very unlikely to be covering for Gabriel, we almost certainly won’t be signing Caicedo due to the cost and we definitely won’t be signing Lavia if Partly doesn’t leave.
Apart from that though, excellent points!
Yes, I agree. Havertz (ESR as backup) will be the #8 most likely. If Partey stays it will be interesting how they lineup because Rice could play the #8 too. Partey seems most suited to the #6 and when fit is pure class. Timber will challenge White, Saliba, and Gabriel for a starting spot and I expect he’ll play a bit, particularly in the cups and champs league. He’s a great addition in terms of depth and ceiling (growing into a starter). Great summer so far. Honestly, not sure how much more we need, which is nuts as it’s the… Read more »
Glad Arsenal are learning to sell when players still have value, which is a compliment to Xhaka
RM sold 30 year old Casemiro for 70 mil last year. We still have a long way to go, but this is a good start.
To be fair: The arrival of Casemiro and Varane rescued Man United from the shitshow to which they were descending.
Casemiro won four champions leagues. Also Man U pay double what everybody else pays.
If we had Casemiro we would have won the league
prefer to be second without him…
Happy for GX34. Would hv been better if we won the title, nevertheless he left w his head held high. Never give up.. that’s one key takeaway if you ask me about Granit.
I think he had his best ever season at Arsenal last year and his experience will definitely be missed in the dressing room. 25 million is not a bad deal.
fk off out of our club judas! if you dont want to play a part when we’re fighting for the greatest honors in football, i dont want you near the emirates blert!!!
WTF?! Have you mistaken Xhaka for someone else?!
Based on what has happened throughout his career, regardless of the manager or the style of play, I think it’s safe to predict that he will start every game for which he’s fit (which probably means every game). It’s hard to imagine him being willing to remain at Arsenal as anything other than that–but imagine having him on the bench!
A warrior departs; another (Rice) arrives.
Good luck to you, my favourite Gunner.
This is the best news of the window. I can’t honestly see how our fans believe this man to be anything other than an absolute liability. He has days in which is is average, at best, but nothing more.
He is, by far, one of the most useless and damaging (to us) players that we’ve ever had.
I’m so happy he’s going.
Funny how Wenger, Emery, Ateta and everyone who’s played with him disagrees with you.
“By far, one of the most” is an oxymoron, so it makes as much sense as the rest of your post.
Damn. It’s good timing for all parties but I’ll still miss him. Farewell Xhaka and all the best, I’ll remember your time at Arsenal fondly and will never take what you’ve done for us for Granit