Roma director Tiago Pinto has admitted that Granit Xhaka wanted to join the Serie A giants before being forced to stay at Premier League strugglers Arsenal, speaking to Gianluca di Marzio.
The shock in Ally McCoist’s voice said it all.
As France and Switzerland played out arguably the game of the tournament at Euro 2020, like the Rangers legend, we could hardly believe what we were seeing.
Here was Granit Xhaka, the much-maligned, card-hogging, accident-waiting-to-happen, going toe to toe with the World Cup winners – and very nearly coming out on top.
But if Arsenal fans were hoping that Xhaka’s outstanding displays on the international stage were the beginning of something special – a renaissance the likes of which we haven’t seen since Michael Keaton – they were sadly mistaken.
The stupidest of stupid red cards in Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing at the hands of a rampant Manchester City felt like a crushing return to reality.
Suddenly, handing Xhaka a new, long-term contract – while turning down a number of approaches from Roma – looks like the latest in a long line of bird-brained decisions from a club who have just made their worst start to a league season in nearly 70 years.
Why did Granit Xhaka end up staying at Arsenal?
“We bought so many players but everyone asks me about the midfielder,” said Tiago Pinto (via Gianluca Di Marzio).
“Everyone knows we wanted Xhaka. He wanted to come to Roma but Arsenal didn’t release him. This is my regret for this transfer window.”
Roma did make a bid for Xhaka but failed to meet Arsenal’s £20 million asking price, robbing us of the chance to see one of the game’s most combustible characters join forces with Jose Mourinho in the Italian capital; the footballing equivalent of dropping a year’s supply of mentos into a bottle of the fizziest bottle of Pepsi.
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