Is Granit Xhaka staying such a bad thing?
It’s been a mixed couple of days for Arsenal fans. On Friday, Arsenal’s new defender Ben White was announced, completing his move from Brighton. Despite the price tag of £50 million, this is a deal which has all Arsenal fans excited. However, before the official Ben White announcement, the Athletic reported that Granit Xhaka is now set to stay at Arsenal. Not only this, but Arsenal are set to offer him a new contract, a price rise included in the new deal. It seemed like Xhaka would be heading to Italy, with Jose Mourinho’s Roma very interested in the Swiss captain. However, no agreement has been reached between the clubs for a transfer fee, and the player is fed up of waiting.
So it seems like after all our fantasising of a post-Xhaka Arsenal midfield, that, for now, he’s here to stay. There are clearly some negative aspects of this – Arsenal are yet to qualify for the Champions League with Xhaka in the squad. There is a strong case to be made for Arsenal to move on from the 28-year-old, his unpredictable and erratic nature has cost Arsenal many times in the past. But is this news really all that bad?
One less job for Arsenal this summer
While Granit Xhaka was seemingly finalising his move to Italy, the focus was very much on Arsenal, to sign a replacement midfielder. Names such as Manuel Locatelli, Houssem Aouar, Yves Bissouma and more recently Bruno Guimaraes were thrown around. However all would have come at a price – probably around £30-40 million. With Xhaka now staying, the need for a first team midfielder is significantly less. This of course frees up funds and time to spend instead on positions such as right-back, goalkeeper, attacking midfielder and maybe striker.
Of course many Arsenal fans would suggest that a midfielder is still needed at Arsenal this summer. People like Guendouzi have already left, and others such as Torreira, Maitland-Niles and Willock are potentially leaving, so there is a gap in squad depth. And players such as Elneny, who are happy to be back-ups, aren’t exactly the best players. So I very much think that if the right midfielder comes along at the right price, then Arsenal should take it. Playing Granit Xhaka 38 games a season clearly has its downsides. Somebody who could share minutes with him would be a very clever addition to this Arsenal squad.
Furthermore, the recent news of Thomas Partey’s injury changes things. Hopefully, his injury is not too serious, but if it is, then Arsenal really need another midfielder. So while Xhaka offers us more depth in the midfield for now, having an injury prone player like Partey to rely on, also increases the need for another midfielder to join the club.
So while a new central midfielder would be handy for Arsenal, with Granit Xhaka staying, it is clearly not a priority and means that Arsenal can shift the focus elsewhere for now.
Arsenal showing strength in the market
One of the most frustrating things to watch is Arsenal trying to sell players. We have seen brilliant players such as Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez leave the club without recovering a transfer fee. Whatsmore, other players like Eddie Nketiah and Matteo Guendouzi have failed to attract interest for the price they are being sold at. £25 million for a home-grown, Premier League proven striker, who holds the record for most goals scored at England youth level, seems incredibly reasonable. Players like Rhian Brewster have gone for more money, while having a worse youth record. But the only approach for Eddie Nketiah this summer has been a bid of around £10 million from Crystal Palace. Why can’t we sell our players?
A simple answer is that Arsenal have been too public. Most clubs interested in Nketiah know that Arsenal don’t have a long term plan for him and are happy to sell. This means the clubs feel they can make a lower offer, and Arsenal will want to accept it just to get rid of the player.
This example is similar to what is going on with Granit Xhaka. Granit Xhaka is also almost 29-years-old, and so could be starting to decline. Furthermore, Roma are also aware that Xhaka is probably on Arsenal’s for sale list this summer. All this put together means that Roma feel like a low bid could get the player because of his situation at Arsenal. The current bid from Roma is around €11 million rising to €14 million. This is not at all close to the €20 million Arsenal were looking for. So rejecting Roma’s approach, is showing ruthlessness in the transfer market, and showing other clubs that Arsenal are no pushovers. Roma now either have to up their bid, or miss out on the player that they wanted. Arsenal are now in the stronger position.
He fits Arteta’s system
Mikel Arteta has a pretty specific role for his central midfielder. This midfielder plays to the left of Thomas Partey, and often finds themselves filling in at left-back, while Tierney bombs forward. This is a role Xhaka has performed for a full season now, and in many games, he has done it well.
He also plays an important role in Arsenal’s build-up play. Arsenal like to play through the midfield, and with the amount of progressive passes Granit Xhaka makes, he is key player for that role. He is in the 95th percentile for progressive passes and averages 7.17 per 90 minutes. Granit Xhaka also creates many chances with his passes into the final third. He is in the 99th percentile for passes into the final third over last season, and this is crucial to our chance creation.
Finally, he also plays an important role defensively. He ranks in the 92nd percentile for ball recoveries over last season. We see him in our defensive box very often, and he certainly doesn’t shy away from a tackle. This takes pressure off the back 4 and helps the team build up attacks.
Should Arsenal move on while they can?
Xhaka’s time at Arsenal has been a rocky one to say the least. In October 2019, Xhaka was booed off at the Emirates during a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace, after swearing at the Arsenal fans. Subsequently, he was stripped of Arsenal captaincy and his Arsenal exit seemed imminent. That January, a transfer collapsed and he stayed at Arsenal. He found a new lease of life under Mikel Arteta, and became integral to his system. But whenever you think Granit Xhaka has changed and eradicated the mistakes from his game, it happens again. A mistake. An error leading to a goal. A stupid red card.
In his 5 seasons at Arsenal, he has registered 9 errors leading to goals, 3 red cards and 42 yellow cards. Last season alone, he committed 2 errors leading to goals, more than any other Arsenal player. He cost us wins in both fixtures against Burnley last season – one red card and one misjudged pass. With those extra 4 points, Arsenal could have finished 6th. How different things would have been.
The fact is that we are yet to qualify for the Champions League with Granit Xhaka in the team. He is not a player we can keep on relying on and it’s pretty obvious that we need to move away from him if we want to go to the next level. This summer, there has been a suitor, a club very interested in the player. Given the player’s age, this could be one of our last opportunities to get any money at all for Xhaka. So there is quite a strong case to be made that we should move away from Xhaka despite the low offer.
Could Xhaka still leave this summer?
It was the Athletic that first reported the new contract for Xhaka, and was later confirmed by Fabrizio Romano. It doesn’t get more reliable than that.
However, many people have suggested that Arsenal have intentionally leaked this news to the press. This could be to make Roma improve their offer quickly. If this is the case, then hats off to whoever came up with that idea at Arsenal.
I still believe that Xhaka leaving for €20 million would be the ideal outcome of this transfer saga. And of course that would have to come with a midfield upgrade. There is still over 5 weeks of the transfer market to go, and a lot can happen in that time. But we need this situation sorted ideally before our opening fixture against Brentford in just under two weeks time.
