Granit Xhaka is expected to be announced as having joined Arsenal in the coming hours, having been snapped in the official new kit of next season.
The Swiss international has been watched on a number of occasions this season, with the Gunners believed to have prioritised his arrival, and they now appear to have wrapped up his signature swiftly.
Xhaka will become the first signing of the summer, and only their third outifeld arrival in the past 18 months. The fee is yet to be confirmed, but most recent reports claimed a £25 Million initial fee had been agreed, with a further £10 Million likely to be paid in add-ons, should he trigger certain clauses.
Borussia Monchengladbach have been resigned to losing their club captain for some time now, and their star man said all of his goodbyes following their last Bundesliga outing of the campaign, when he was seen hugging his coaches, and received a standing ovation from the fans.
It remains to be seen how he will fit into Arsene Wenger’s plans, but Mohamed Elneny has impressed since joining in January, and will be hard to shift, which could see Coquelin relieved of some of his first-team duties.
The 23 year-old is very highly-rated by those who follow the Bundesliga, and is believed to be a huge acquisition for the Gunners, who will be looking to hit the ground running next term, in what could be Arsene Wenger’s final season with the club.
I’m sure you all can’t wait to see him in action in the European Championships now! The French boss certainly wrapped up this signing quickly, which can only be a positive sign of things to come. Watch this space…
Will Xhaka go straight into the first-team? Should Coquelin be the man to make way?
I hope this is the first of more but a great start
Xhaka will make Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey better
Now, a top CF, a CB and a top class winger and we are all set
Welcome to Arsenal Xhaka!! Hope you exceed expectations. Also hope we get a top Striker and CB. Next season will be a cracker.
Yep can’t argue with that. If the talk about Morata has any truth in it I will be well happy. Adding a hlaf decent CB will also help as you said but I’d be happy if they added just Morata or someone similar.
Great signing. He’s basically what Wenger wanted Arteta to be. Say what you like about Arteta but to me in his first two seasons with us he was great. His distribution and switching of play connected our defence and attack so well. Unfortunately he simply did not have the physique required to do the physical aspect of that role that is definitely required in a league like the bpl, so was at times caught exposed as a result. With Xhaka, you have the great distribution and vision of arteta, BUT also the physicality that Arteta lacked. I must say for all of Wengers faults he does show signs of knowing what he is doing IMO. But… Wenger as great of a signing this is, it will all be in vein if we don’t get a top striker in. Please Wenger treat yourself 🙂
As an arsenal fan from switzerland i absolutely love this news 😀 i love it when guys who played in swiss like elneny or xhaka (who also plays for the NT) come to arsenal.. elneny is a good player and a lot of you will know about shaqiri but i have always liked xhaka more, for the national team he even plays as a 10 a lot of times
THE FIRST TO MANY!!! Now we purchase strikers!!! I dream LEBONDOBSKI!!!!
WHO? ? ? Is he Poland’s versions of James Bond? ?
Wow it feels like the new season has started already. with the old one not totally finish(FA cup), anyway feeling quite happy with our first signing Granit, hopefully it will be GRANITE by the new season is over, looking to see now who wenger brings in as Welbecks replacement, Morata is the front runner, but for some reason i don not see that happening, i can not see arsenal breaking the bank for him and i really do not think we should either. I would test everton for a lukaku with a 50 million offer and a loan offer of one of our young stars
Don’t you guys think our midfield is packed? Ramsey,cazorla,elneny,lecoq and now xhaka…xhaka will get into first team almost immediately. Cazorla and xhaka would be a great pair.
That’s great news!.. The photos look genuine ??
But we still wait for official confirmation! ?
In other news:
Wojciech Szczesny has given a damming assessment of Arsene Wenger and his coaching methods, saying: ‘I have learned more in six months with Spalletti than in 10 years at Arsenal.
I’m sure that will please mr Wenger ?
‘I love working with him, I never get bored,there is a good feeling with him and the other goalkeepers,’saidSzczesny.‘It makes me want to work even harder. We spent much time together and a great
friendship was born.
‘If I made a step forward in my career it is
thanks to him.
‘Spalletti made a difference for me, he
gives great importance to the details and,at minimum, wants the goalkeeper to know
how to play with the ball at his feet.’ He added: ‘I consider this season very
positive, I had to change mentality quickly,
it was a very important opportunity for me.
“It was a waste of time to sit on the bench in London.‘I was thinking of winning the Scudetto in
Rome. I did not succeed, but I grew as a goalkeeper.’ ‘I know where I will play next year, but Icannot reveal it now,’ the shot-stopper
said.‘If I stay in Roma I can still improve, if I go
back to Arsenal, I will treasure my experience in Italy.’
…………am trying to find this……. ‘I have learned
more in six months with Spalletti than in
10 years at Arsenal. since u have quoted, he cnt be that direct disrespectful
Szczesny is angling for a permanent move at a reduced price with that comment.
I read Arsenal want £15 mil for selling Szczesny, 10-12 Mil would still be a great deal.
I’m guessing it was a headline from the author of the article. They interpreted what he said to mean whatever dig they fancied. (People need to look for the quotation marks, everything else is some dudes opinion). Why don’t they just give it straight, even Szcz brought that up a few weeks ago about the English media twisting his words.
Looking forward to
____Xhaka__Le coq__Elneny
___Ozil_____
__Alexis______New CF
In a top away grounds like camp now. #COYG #WelcomeHomeXhaka
I’m not to keen on the hype of Morata, especially at the reported fee, of around 50 – £60 million ? and he hasn’t even been banging the goals in either!
I would rather we went in for A.Milik Man to deliver the goodness at Arsenal. ?
His hold up play and passing is as good as Giroud’s and His finishing is miles better and at the age of 22 he can only get better!
Milik has scored 21 goals and 7 assists in 28 games for Ajax this season and he has also scored 10 goals in 24 international games for Poland.
He is dubbed as the new Lewandowski and he is valued at around £20 million.
Sign him up mr Wenger, as this striker is a win win situation, compared to Morata.
Yes, thank you! I’ve been touting for Milik a while now.
It’s his second +20 goal season and he’s actually 21 (-94)! Mind as well throw a winger in as Walcott is as useful as Pope’s nutsacks!
Milik better than Lacazette? Lacazette would cost £25 Mil.
Signing Morata is a gamble in my opinion. Dude is already 23 and not yet a starter for Juve. He might go on to become world class but what we need now is a proven goal scorer. I would prefer Higuain, Milik, Lukaku, Lacazette or perhaps Griezman. These guys have scored goals in their leagues regularly and are first team players. Morata at 20mil will be a good deal though..
Anyone know what’s going on with Akpom?
personally i will wait for the official announcement, there are too many movies being acted at Emirates and the list of would have been signed is so long that we could have lost room for keeping our trophies had we signed them. If Xhaka is really in them i suppose we will cool our N’golo Kante interests. unless we are shifting to a new playing pattern and perhaps AW wants all the players in early so as to have time to test the new play pattern and settle as soon as possible.
Wenger spoke about Giroud leading attack, would it be possible Giroud will be paired up with another striker? After all his super performance at Ligue 1 was aided by the two striker formation. Not sure what formation would work in that context…
Wow! fantastic news, midfield sorted. Now waiting for that lethal striker and a rock solid defender then wait for the new season with high hopes.
This club needs a goal scorer, someone who can rack up 25-30 goals per season and a top CB. I hear Liverpool is getting Joel Matip who is bundesliga team of the year again! Why didn’t we go for him? Having faith in unproven players is what’s got us top 4 every year and we’re betting on Gabriel/Kos being healthy throughout the entire season? who can step in if one of them gets injured? Wenger being wenger again!
……………………Neuer
Piszczek..Hummels..Boateng..Alaba
Mkhitaryan..Kagawa..Vidal..Reus
………..Chicharito..Lewandowski
This is the team of the season from official Bundesliga site. Surprised Xhaka is not in it as I heard he was, but not there it seems. As for J Matip – Sky sports done a piece on him, they asked sky sports Germany for the low down. This is what the said – “He’s not currently at the best level of defenders in Germany, such as Mats Hummels or Jerome Boateng, Holder Badstuber or Javi Martinez. But after these top guys he’s in the next group.
Excellent signing with super accurate long range passing out of defence.
Long range free kicks are good too.
If the transfer of Xhaka to Arsenal actually actualized, it’ll be 1 strong media speculated Arsenal transfer that has come to pass in recent times.
If you ask me to choose between strikers: Morata and Lukaku for one of them to be signed to replaced Welbeck, it’ll be a difficult choise for me to make because they are both good.
But would Morata playing in the Italian League stubborn defense with Ucl campaign experience has the advantage over the Premier League free goals scoring Lukaku with a good Premier League experience? Or would Lukaku has the advantage over the less goals scoring Morata if Lukaku is signed by Arsenal?
The Boss and his experts should figure out who among the 2 will be best option for Arsenal to sign if at all they are interested in signing any of them.
Wenger now needs to take the leap of faith and sign a scorer of goals. someone who has learned where the net is. i do not really beleive Alvaro Morata is that player. for me he looks Giroud 2.0 unless he steps up. I would suggest that Wenger goes for Lucas Pérez Martínez of Deportivo. Young, Cheaper at 10Million and has had 17 goals and 10 assists. if not the Eredivisie has players like De Jong of PSV, Janssen of AZ Alkmaar and Malik of Ajax. Ighalo and Lukaku have performed right here in the Premier League. Most of these players have faced very little service and have made good use of it. the 464 chances would obviously be useful and any of these players would be a 30-goal scorer. Incidentally Juventus have created similar number of chances 464. Deportivo have created 330 chances, Watford created 311, AZ Alkmaar created 409 chances, Ajax 400, PSV 452, Real 561 and Barca 435…That’s why for me Lucas Martinez is the player we should be chasing. at 51M we can get two of the players above and still be left with some change
does anyone know where the pics come from??
His girlfriend leaked them. I hope this doesn’t end up biting us in the ass. We are still supposedly targeting players of this position. Arsenal are not happy about it, bad way to begin at his new club, revealing the new kit along with the signing. I think everybody knew anyhow, but it might become more difficult persuading others to sign who will now have Xhaka along with Cazorla and co in the pecking order.
His brother was there and uploaded them to Instagram…
Really love how Arsene is now taking the centre of midfield very seriously. We just got Elneny, and now Arsene has paid a pretty penny for someone to walk straight into the team. Being strong in this area is crucial to the spine. I reckon it’s gonna be a Xhaka Cazorla partnership for the most part. Then when we need to be more hardy, Elneny and/or Coquelin will come into the fray. If we can get the right striker along with a quality CB, that is the spine, maybe we can again witness Arsenal being both exciting and tough. This seems like a step in the right direction, lets hope it continues.
Great signing! I hope this signifies that Wenger has finally learnt that doing your business early or before the window is critical. But why do you guys keep referring to Xhaka as a DM, he is not, he is a box to box Midfielder. So I think he will be replacing Carzola in that position while Carzola will go back to his natural position which is an AM, playing as a sub for Ozil. While Coquilin and El Neny battle for the DM starting shirt.