Draxler’s season at Wolfsburg should have set the alarm bells ringing.
When you’re planning to splurge the majority of your transfer budget on a single player, you want them to perform rain or shine, home or away. Therefore, the widening chasm between Wolfsburg and Julian Draxler will surely make interested parties think twice about making an approach for even one of the most talented young players in Europe.
In truth, Draxler’s move to the VW Arena in 2015 was suspect from the start. After all, Wolfsburg are hardly a giant leap up the ladder from his former club Schalke, with suggestions that the 23-year-old was merely utilising the motor vehicle funded Wolves as a stepping stone to bigger and purportedly better things not exactly wide of the mark.
After all, the Daily Mail’s claim that Draxler turned down Juventus for Wolfsburg in the summer of 2015 after being given assurances that he would be allowed to leave as soon as any supposed ‘big club’ showed interest speaks volumes about the player and club’s long-term strategy.
Draxler expressed his frustration to Bild recently concerning Wolfsburg’s refusal to let him leave, only for the club to deny any verbal agreement had taken place, per Sky Sports.
And, in truth, his form has been nowhere near the level required of a club of Juventus’ stature.
Examples of his devastating potential have been fleeting at best, his glorious double salvo in th
e Champions League last-16 in February his most complete and montage-worthy performance for the 2015 DFB Pokal winners. Though this was not against Real Madrid, Juventus or Atletico. Gent were the opponents on that February night and, from there, everything has gone rather rapidly downhill.
While his playmaking predecessor Kevin De Bruyne powered Wolfsburg to second place in the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal title in 2015, Draxler has come to symbolise their decline, lacking in commitment and devoid of passion.
Entering the field to jeers when coming off the bench in a home defeat to Hertha Berlin a week ago, the German international was left out of the matchday squad entirely for Wolfsburg’s 5-0 defeat to Bayern on Saturday.
So let’s get the facts straight; this is a player who has frequently spoken to the media about his desire to leave as soon as possible, a player who can turn on the style, as he showed in front of a worldwide audience for Germany at the Euros, but doesn’t appear to fancy the bread and butter of the Bundesliga.
“I would like to say that as a big club I would not want Draxler at the moment,” German legend Lothar Matthaus said recently in quotes reported by talkSPORT.
“Partly because of his weakness in character and, on the other hand, since he is a talent but has not yet proved it permanently at a high level.”
According to the Independent, long-time suitors Arsenal have been joined in the race for Julian Draxler by a newly moneyed Everton, desperate to secure a long-awaited marquee signing to herald the beginning of the Farhad Moshiri era.
Everton famously missed out on Moussa Sissoko, Axel Witsel et al in the summer and, last week, the agent of Inter Milan playmaker Ever Banega catagorically ruled out a January switch to Goodison Park according to Calciomercato, meaning Draxler, reputation-wise, fits the bill.
However, does this sound like a player Ronald Koeman, a man who publically questioned the commitment and work-rate of fans favourite and homegrown hero Ross Barkley, would want at his club?
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