Apparently Roma's last offer for Xhaka was 12 million euros plus some add ons. Can see why we've told them to shove it. Frustrating though, thought we were finally moving on![]()
The Cult of Saliba need to let this go - just let the kid develop in peace and get behind White and the other CBs in the meantime.
I get it - we all wanted to believe the “next Varane” hype, esp. at a time when we desperately needed a good CB to come in and save us, but the reality is he’s just a highly-rated prospect that Raul massively overpaid for (again) and he should never have had the pressure of that price tag heaped on him.
Fwiw, I still think there’ll be a place for him here - for one thing he’ll count as home-grown by the time this current loan ends, and that sounds like it could be a big tick for him - but for now getting regular minutes under his belt is going to be far more beneficial to him than sitting on our bench as 4th choice CB. Final test for him now is to see if he can maintain form and fitness across more than half a season.
Nobody else seems remotely interested in Xhaka. I hear we are now planning to offer him a new contract...at an increased level no doubt because that what we always do. A year from now we wont be able to give Xhaka away for free
Make 2mrw better than 2day
Honestly, I’d be surprised if Xhaka signs any extension. My take on it is he was ready to storm out in a huff in Dec 19 and was even prepared to drop as far as Hertha Berlin to get out - I think what happened then is that Arteta talked him down from the ledge with the promise of getting him a better move in the summer if he gave him 6 good months, and then the pandemic hit and we all ended up stuck with each other for another year as the market collapsed.
At this point I don’t think there’s any part of Xhaka that is remotely interested in signing an extension, and I’m sure he’s quite aware that the main reason he’d be offered one would be to protect his value if we can’t sell this summer. He wants an easy out so it’s really not in his interest.
City have bid 100m for Grealish.
After the fun of the Euros, I forgot how stupid football is and that it’s all starting again in a couple of weeks.