Granit Xhaka

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salford_ said:
John Cross of the Mirror trying to justify spending 50m euros on someone who has never played in the prem, over spending £20m on Kante of Leicester.

He is annoying as feck, if Xhaka falls through and they sign Kante, he will go the opposite way then and claim Xhaka wasnt worth it
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The numbers which Arsenal are supposed to have offered vary across German media. I'd wait if it actually comes even close to €50m for Xhaka.
 
Archie Leach said:
Would Leicester let him go for 20? I don't think he and Xhaka are the same player either. I'm happy we're going for him and I'd be happy with a player like Kante.
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Kante has a release clause of that amount according to French Media. 25m Euros I think.
 
salford_ said:
John Cross of the Mirror trying to justify spending 50m euros on someone who has never played in the prem, over spending £20m on Kante of Leicester.
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I'll never get that argument. There are so many 'premier league proven' players who failed to make the step up from an English midtable club to one of the English top clubs. Yet it's usually completely ignored whenever a club signs someone from abroad and the 'premier league proven tag' is brought up as if it's a guarantee for getting great performances out of the player.

Xhaka is a different player than Kante from what I've seen. Xhaka is more a Xabi Alonso type deep lying playmaker, not a mobile and high energy box to box midfielder like Kante. At least that's my impression from both players. Arsenal could use both to be honest.
 
Balu said:
I'll never get that argument. There are so many 'premier league proven' players who failed to make the step up from an English midtable club to one of the English top clubs. Yet it's usually completely ignored whenever a club signs someone from abroad and the 'premier league proven tag' is brought up as if it's a guarantee for getting great performances out of the player.

Xhaka is a different player than Kante from what I've seen. Xhaka is more a Xabi Alonso type deep lying playmaker, not a mobile and high energy box to box midfielder like Kante. At least that's my impression from both players. Arsenal could use both to be honest.
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Kante wasnt premier league proven last season, so kind of defeats the whole point.
 
Grinner said:
A lot of Arse fans and some on here were slating Wenger for not buying Schneiderlin.

Arsene knows.
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Arsene wenger knows how good every player is. He just chooses not to buy them so that he has a story to tell when they put in world class performances for other clubs . 'Back in the day I almost signed [insert player name] '
 
Wouldn't be surprised if City move on from Gündogan after his latest injury and look elsewhere with Xhaka certainly being an interesting option. Gladbach always gave Pep a lot of problems with Xhaka having a few great games against us.
 
There is too much smoke for there not to be some fire. But its not over the line yet and with clubs like City (or maybe even Bayern) potential late entrants, I'll only celebrate once its on arsenal.com.

But Xhaka would give us a lot of options in midfield so its fun to think about. I've long felt that Wenger's dream was to find a DM with tackling ability, positional sense, and passing range that he could play next to Ramsey - essentially a stronger, tougher Arteta. Its pretty clear that Coquelin (or worse, Flamini) doesn't have the passing skills to pull this off - our midfield is totally dysfunctional with that pairing, we can't advance the ball quickly to the feet of the attacking midfielers, Ozil ends up having to pick it up deep and start attacks, etc. Wenger has been auditioning Elneny for this role in the last few weeks but Xhaka seems to be a class above. I imagine that Xhaka-Ramsey would be our starting pairing in most games in which we were favored and expected to be on the front foot, but playing 2/3 of Xhaka/Elneny/Coquelin would give us a really strong central pairing in tough matches or when closing out matches. I imagine that Cazorla would ease into the Rosicky-esque elder statesman squad player role, primarily playing if Xhaka was injured or needed a rest and we needed another passer in midfield, or move back to Spain.
 
City were linked with him a while back and you know Guardiola will want a #6, good signing for Arsenal if they pull it off, we could do with him to replace Carrick in truth.
 
Powderfinger said:
There is too much smoke for there not to be some fire. But its not over the line yet and with clubs like City (or maybe even Bayern) potential late entrants, I'll only celebrate once its on arsenal.com.

But Xhaka would give us a lot of options in midfield so its fun to think about. I've long felt that Wenger's dream was to find a DM with tackling ability, positional sense, and passing range that he could play next to Ramsey - essentially a stronger, tougher Arteta. Its pretty clear that Coquelin (or worse, Flamini) doesn't have the passing skills to pull this off - our midfield is totally dysfunctional with that pairing, we can't advance the ball quickly to the feet of the attacking midfielers, Ozil ends up having to pick it up deep and start attacks, etc. Wenger has been auditioning Elneny for this role in the last few weeks but Xhaka seems to be a class above. I imagine that Xhaka-Ramsey would be our starting pairing in most games in which we were favored and expected to be on the front foot, but playing 2/3 of Xhaka/Elneny/Coquelin would give us a really strong central pairing in tough matches or when closing out matches. I imagine that Cazorla would ease into the Rosicky-esque elder statesman squad player role, primarily playing if Xhaka was injured or needed a rest and we needed another passer in midfield, or move back to Spain.
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Ramsey has a lot to do to suggest he's worthy of a starting place and I think, from what I've seen of Xhaka, he offers everything Rambo does. I'd be interested to see how Elneny kicks on, that would be my preferred pairing at the moment with Cazorla rotating.

And welcome up to the mains. Are you an Australian too? Do people outside Australia like Powderfinger?
 
Archie Leach said:
Ramsey has a lot to do to suggest he's worthy of a starting place and I think, from what I've seen of Xhaka, he offers everything Rambo does. I'd be interested to see how Elneny kicks on, that would be my preferred pairing at the moment with Cazorla rotating.

And welcome up to the mains. Are you an Australian too? Do people outside Australia like Powderfinger?
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Thanks for the welcome! I'm actually an American, and a huge fan of Neil Young in general and the song Powderfinger in particularly. I don't really know the band, except that they named themselves after that song.

I agree completely about Ramsey. In my opinion, he has been pretty poor the last two years and his inability/unwillingness to adapt his game when moving back into the middle was a huge part of our collapse this year. I also like Elneny quite a bit and think the Xhaka/Elneny pairing would give us a very good platform. But I'm resigned to the idea that Wenger will keep giving Ramsey chances to play in the middle, especially if its next to a player like Xhaka that could cover some of his deficiencies. Ramsey was terrible before he got hurt this spring but, once healthy, he was right back in the starting eleven playing next to Elneny. Xhaka-Ramsey as a starting pairing is not my preferred lineup but I expect its how Wenger will want to play.
 
Powderfinger said:
Thanks for the welcome! I'm actually an American, and a huge fan of Neil Young in general and the song Powderfinger in particularly. I don't really know the band, except that they named themselves after that song.

I agree completely about Ramsey. In my opinion, he has been pretty poor the last two years and his inability/unwillingness to adapt his game when moving back into the middle was a huge part of our collapse this year. I also like Elneny quite a bit and think the Xhaka/Elneny pairing would give us a very good platform. But I'm resigned to the idea that Wenger will keep giving Ramsey chances to play in the middle, especially if its next to a player like Xhaka that could cover some of his deficiencies. Ramsey was terrible before he got hurt this spring but, once healthy, he was right back in the starting eleven playing next to Elneny. Xhaka-Ramsey as a starting pairing is not my preferred lineup but I expect its how Wenger will want to play.
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Oh yeah Neil Young makes more sense. And shows better taste.
 
Archie Leach said:
Ramsey has a lot to do to suggest he's worthy of a starting place and I think, from what I've seen of Xhaka, he offers everything Rambo does. I'd be interested to see how Elneny kicks on, that would be my preferred pairing at the moment with Cazorla rotating.
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Ramsey's shortcomings have been badly exposed recently. All he can do is play box to box, damn good at it though but his general touch and passing is nowhere near where it needs to be. He gets pressed off the ball to easily and takes too long to play a pass. His best form came when he was with Arteta in the middle, someone who could dictate the game. Also he goes chasing goals, even at the expense of keeping shape and the team, that for me isn't on.

Wonder if we would experiment

Balu said:
Xhaka is a different player than Kante from what I've seen. Xhaka is more a Xabi Alonso type deep lying playmaker, not a mobile and high energy box to box midfielder like Kante. At least that's my impression from both players. Arsenal could use both to be honest.
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I think that is what we expected of Ramsey, while defensively not as good as Kante a few years ago Ramsey was leading the charts with tackles won. His offensive game is far better though but he has gone backwards in recent times. Doesn't show much discipline in his game any more.
 
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Balu said:
Xhaka is a different player than Kante from what I've seen. Xhaka is more a Xabi Alonso type deep lying playmaker, not a mobile and high energy box to box midfielder like Kante. At least that's my impression from both players. Arsenal could use both to be honest.
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Another question I wanted to ask is what do you think of him technically and how good is he under pressure? We suffer a lot when teams press us so will be interesting to see how he would cope with that side of things
 
Ramsey is an Anti Cazorla. Big, stupid strides, poor touches, lack of spatial awareness, overrates his own ability on the ball, and has poor centre of gravity.
 
Donaldo said:
Ramsey is an Anti Cazorla. Big, stupid strides, poor touches, lack of spatial awareness, overrates his own ability on the ball, and has poor centre of gravity.
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Is it me and has he got unecessarily aggressive recently? Which was never part of his game.
 
Lash said:
Is it me and has he got unecessarily aggressive recently? Which was never part of his game.
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He's probably one of the most polite footballers I've seen. Not very Anti Cazorla there (although Santi is prone to the odd wanker sign directed at Mike Dean, which is never a bad thing)
 
Donaldo said:
He's probably one of the most polite footballers I've seen. Not very Anti Cazorla there (although Santi is prone to the odd wanker sign directed at Mike Dean, which is never a bad thing)
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Oh I meant more with his tackling and battling in midfield. I just see him giving away a hell of a lot more fouls and stupid ones at that.
 
JazzG said:
Another question I wanted to ask is what do you think of him technically and how good is he under pressure? We suffer a lot when teams press us so will be interesting to see how he would cope with that side of things
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He's good under pressure, doesn't keep the ball unnecessary long and has a good shortpassing game to keep the ball ticking in these situations. Coaching plays a big role in that as well though. Gladbach has been really well organised over the last few years, with great off the ball movement and cohesion with and without the ball. Every deep lying playmaker looks static and slow if his teammates don't make themselves available for the easy pass.
 
This is a good signing for Arsenal. Offers defensive solidity whilst also adhering to their passing game. He isn't very fast though. May need some legs around him to do some of the running if you want to play him in a two man pivot.
 
Lash said:
Oh I meant more with his tackling and battling in midfield. I just see him giving away a hell of a lot more fouls and stupid ones at that.
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Has to make last ditch tackles (which he misses more often than not) because he gets caught out of position.
 
Arsenal's PR man informed the press at the conference this morning that there would be no questions allowed on Granit Xhaka..Knowing how the club operate this is either done or on the verge of being done.
 
Crossie said:
The numbers which Arsenal are supposed to have offered vary across German media. I'd wait if it actually comes even close to €50m for Xhaka.
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Perhaps another of these add on deals where the full price is unlikely ever to be met?
They do seem to be all the rage at the moment (Martial, Sanches, Dembele)
 


Its twitter, so take it with a shaker of salt. But this is the guy who was right at every step of the process regarding Elneny. He has a lot of ties to Basel.
 
Everyone here seems to think Arsenal are signing a gem. That good ?
 
Never seen this guy play, but judging by this thread he's a combination of Scholes, Keane and Robson...
 
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