Is this goodbye?
With some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs batting their eyelashes in his direction, and having turned down the chance to extend his contract at Borussia Monchengladbach, Denis Zakaria’s end-of-season message was always likely to be dissected and analysed as feverishly as your tatty old copy of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.
Gladbach’s sporting director, the much-admired Max Eberl, has already admitted the Bundesliga giants would rather cash in on a key player than let him go for free.
Eberl didn’t mention Zakaria by name but, with little more than 12 months left on the player’s existing deal, it wasn’t difficult to work out who he was talking about.
“We cannot and do not want to simply let the contracts expire with players who have cost us money,” Eberl explained.
According to BILD, the all-action Switzerland international has seen his price tag fall from £36 million to £18 million, with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City sniffing out a bargain.
Arsenal, meanwhile, are apparently willing to offer Granit Xhaka, the former Gladbach talisman, as a sweetener in a deal that would see long-time transfer target Zakaria arrive at the Emirates following years of speculation (90Min).
And, with Zakaria sending a message to supporters after Gladbach’s final game of a gruelling Bundesliga season, one word stands out a mile – “was”.
“I am and always was proud to be in this team.”
Note the past tense.
Here’s Zakaria’s message to Monchengladbach in full and the reaction of some fans on Twitter:
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