Granit Xhaka will receive around £35,000-a-week at Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen with reports suggesting that the Arsenal midfielder could make a decision regarding his future at the Premier League giants by the end of the week.
Suddenly, all those reports linking Declan Rice with a move to the Emirates Stadium make that little bit more sense.
The expectation was that Xhaka would stick around until his contract expires in the summer of 2024. According to Fabrizio Romano, however, the long-serving midfielder is now likely to depart sooner rather than later.
The former Borussia Monchengladbach ace is in advanced talks over a return to Germany, and will sign a four-year deal with a Leverkusen side on the up under Xabi Alonso.
Granit Xhaka on his way out of Arsenal
Tuttomercatoweb back up those claims. They add that Xhaka is ‘ready to accept’ a deal worth around £35,000-a-week. That works out at around £1 million less than he currently takes home in the English capital, with Xhaka likely to make a final decision over the coming days.
Leverkusen will pay around £13 million.
Given that Arsenal have come under fire in the recent past for letting high-profile players go for nothing – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shkodran Mustafi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Soktratis, Mesut Ozil and co all leaving for free – bringing in an eight-figure sum for a 30-year-old with one year left on his contract certainly reflects well from a financial perspective.
Xhaka will leave Arsenal on the back of his finest season in red-and-white. He has a career-best seven goals, while setting up seven more.
‘The driving force’
“Who has been the surprise? I’d probably say Granit Xhaka,” Arsenal legend Ian Wright tells Optus Sport.
“He’s been a brilliant servant to the club to this point. Every manager has trusted him. He’s magnificent in the dressing room. Mikel Arteta is using him as more of an attacking force. What you’re seeing now is that he doesn’t get involved in fouls and that stuff. That wasn’t the strength of his game.
“He’s one of the driving forces of the team. I’m very pleased that Mikel has recognised that in him. He’s turned into the player where it would be tough for us to put a side out where we need anything and he’s not in it.”
“I was one of his critics. You’d see him make mistakes that you make when you’re not in the right position. I’ve eaten a lot of humble pie over Xhaka, and I’ve got no problem with that.
“He’s proving a lot of people wrong.”
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