‘I’d give you £50m’: Pundit says Arsenal should swap Xhaka for teenager

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Darren Bent would love to see Jude Bellingham join Arsenal, telling talkSPORT he’d offer five players and £50 million for the Borussia Dortmund star.

While questions were once again raised over Granit Xhaka’s maturity as the 28-year-old left his teammates in the lurch with a stupid first-half red card in the 5-0 thumping at Manchester City, there are no such concerns over an England international who was born just three weeks before Arsenal signed Cesc Fabregas in 2003.

Watching Bellingham control the game and set the tempo from his box-to-box midfield role, you’d never guess the Birmingham-born wonder kid was only 18 years of age.

The former St Andrews starlet boasts the kind of tactical awareness and maturity the card-collecting, controversy-courting Xhaka can only dream of.

And, just 14 months after swapping the Championship for the Champions League, reports are already suggesting it would take a bid in excess of £100 million to lure a potentially generational talent from Borussia Dortmund (EuroSport).

Could Arsenal really afford to chase Jude Bellingham?

Liverpool are at the front of the queue for a teenager who has often been labelled the ‘second coming of Steven Gerrard’.

But Bent, the Arsenal-mad former England international, would happily see Mikel Arteta dump five players and a suitcase containing £50 million outside Signal Iduna Park while bundling Bellingham in his boot and taking him back to north London.

“I’m a big Jude Bellingham fan. I’d literally switch five (Arsenal) players for him,” says the former Tottenham, Sunderland and Charlton Athletic striker.

“Xhaka, (Mohamed) Elneny, Cedric (Soares), (Bernd) Leno and (Calum) Chambers. There’s your five and I’d give you £50 million on top of that!”

Interestingly, three of that quintet were linked with a move away from the Emirates in recent weeks.

Xhaka had his heart set on joining Roma before signing a new deal at the Gunners, Leno is a 2022 target for Inter Milan, while Elneny priced himself out of a move to Galatasaray.