Since leaving Arsenal 31-year-old Granit Xhaka as been on fire, winning the league with Bayer Leverkusen, being a huge reason for their success and has been thriving in Germany and €25 Million is starting to look like a steal for the German club as he continues to thrive.
Xhaka picked up the MOTM award when his country Switzerland beat Hungary 3-1 and has a great game of football. Of course social media started to have a breakdown over Arsenal letting the talented midfielder go, but even though he’s been in great form since leaving the club, should we regret selling him?
Personally, Xhaka was always one of my favourite players when he was playing for Arsenal and when we sold him I questioned it a bit.- But after bringing in Declan Rice I understood why the club was choosing to sell him, although the fee we got for him was not much more than we could have won for a jackpot at a crypto casino! Yes I thought we might regret it a bit but when I sit back and look at the bigger picture, I think we made the right decision.
We bought Xhaka from Borussia Munchengladbach for €45 Million in 2016 and he was a great servant for us, but considering the fact that he’s reaching the later years of his career, I think it was the right option for the club and the player, and has worked out for both of us. Of course, recency bias will come into the conversation and watching him do so well this past season would leave fans to question why we let him go but we got a good fee and were able to bring in both Havertz and Rice.
I do think we could have used Xhaka as an option from the bench, but he would never have been happy to be a bench player and moving on was the best option for both parties. Of course, as we always do, Arsenal fans will keep a keen eye on his progress and wish him the best with his future, it’s good to see a player who gave so much to the club thrive and do so well, even if it’s not with us.
To summarise, no I don’t think we should regret selling Xhaka, personally I think we’ve brought in enough quality for it to not become a problem. Although he’s doing well in Germany and currently at the Euro’s, we mustn’t have regrets even though some fans may say that we could have won the title this season if he hadn’t left…