ive only seen him play a handful of times, so this is probably meaningless. but he seems like pure CM. he can pass the ball with good range, he can shoot but isnt a scorer, and he can tackle but hes not an out and out DM.

so hes basically perfect.

looking forward to yelling "shacka! shacka!" in my living room

banduan wrote:

Haven't seen much Granit. Does he rock?

Well done. He'll be the bedrock of our midfield dominance. A pillar of resistance. Something to build a foundation upon. Sadly "igneous" isn't quite close enough to ignite or ignorant for it to be used as a pun.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
BWoolley wrote:

Agreed, but if our CM options are Xhaka, Elneny, Coquelin and Cazorla/youngster and Ozil at 10, that front three needs to be really free-scoring for that to work.

That's the way it should be, imo. We shouldn't have to depend on our CMs for goals.

I agree and I would prefer that too. The only point I was making is that we need to overhaul our current front line (maybe keep Alexis and move him onto the right) to achieve that purpose (no Giroud, no Welbeck, no Chamberlain...)

In an ideal world, we would build a midfield to rival PSG's, which is the best in world football. We would dump a lot of folks - Flamini, Rosicky, Wilshere, Arteta, and replace them with Kroos and Xhaka. A midfield of Ozil, Kroos and Xhaka would give us the world class quality we used to enjoy in the Vieira/Silva/Edu/Parlour/Bergkamp days

Dump Wilshere? You're nuts.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

ive only seen him play a handful of times, so this is probably meaningless. but he seems like pure CM. he can pass the ball with good range, he can shoot but isnt a scorer, and he can tackle but hes not an out and out DM.

so hes basically perfect.

looking forward to yelling "shacka! shacka!" in my living room

Wouldn't pronounce it like that myself, but I'd guess it might sound a bit like the French name Jacques. Jacque-ahh. (Djaka)

He's interested then. Otherwise it would have been a flat out no.

As for how far it is, I'm still skeptical but Arsene's clearly interested. Off to youtube I go.

Xhaka says "That's all nonsense" when asked if Arsenal want him.

"There have been no negotiations with Arsene Wenger. There is nothing to fix. These are rumors and speculations that come up for a year. "

And: "If someone wants to have seen that my father has been negotiating with Arsenal, alleged to have been in London, he should show me the picture. No one from London has been here to negotiate. If someone claims to have seen this, he should come to me - I invite him to dinner. You can still write like this. "

Savz wrote:
mdgoonah41 wrote:

ive only seen him play a handful of times, so this is probably meaningless. but he seems like pure CM. he can pass the ball with good range, he can shoot but isnt a scorer, and he can tackle but hes not an out and out DM.

so hes basically perfect.

looking forward to yelling "shacka! shacka!" in my living room

Wouldn't pronounce it like that myself, but I'd guess it might sound a bit like the French name Jacques. Jacque-ahh. (Djaka)

Yeah, pretty sure it's more like a g sound like what you have above. Not a hard Sh

Pity, with a name like Granit he sounds like a hard man lol....

In the second part of the interview he states again though that the club and him will look at offers in the summer if there are any interesting ones available. Not a definite no in my book; might as well be just his club keeping the door open for a potential bidding war. Yes that's me clutching at straws.

Pronunciation of Xh in Albanian is virtually the same as the English 'G' or J in 'jungle' btw.

Savz wrote:

Dump Wilshere? You're nuts.

Who are you? 
You will continue to pay £4,5m a year for a guy who averages 13 games a season? And that number will only decline after this campaign. It's not good business. 

Claudius wrote:
Savz wrote:

Dump Wilshere? You're nuts.

Who are you? 

😆

Jack Wilshere is such a good player, so determined, has goal scoring potential. We're hardly ever dull when Jack is in the team. Yes injuries are frustrating, but no way would I say bin him. No way at all. Nor will Wenger, especially when we had a decade of injuries from Diaby and almost a decade of injuries with Rosicky and we stuck with them both.

Plus he's only 24!

If the injuries persist for another 2 seasons or so, then I'd be think about it, but not now.

£4.5m per season? Our cash balance is £228m.

Our revenue went up from 148m in 14/15, to 160m in the first six months of 15/17. We got lots of money.

We're going to see the revue skyrocket again this summer with the new broadcasting deals in place.

So £4m per year? Minor.

Looks a bit like Petit in those compilations, but I want us to sign a midfielder who is much better on the ball. We are very vulnerable under pressure and we give the ball away far too often and far too easily.

Very decent passing range. 

jones wrote:
Claudius wrote:

Who are you? 

😆

😆

Xhaka is going to dent 35m out of the 75m budget, so basically he is going to be the big signing. Guess it's Welbeck/Giroud for another season.

If we have a 75m budget, which the Telegraph surely doesn't know, why can't a 40m signing be the big one?

Also, no club ever pays the whole transfer fee up front.

40m won't get any of the big striker signings, and there are other positions which need addressing too.

Hate when papers talk about warchests and budgets. We have the largest cash revenue in world football. We can easily afford the top strikers. It's a matter of whether or not Wenger gives the okay to make the deal go through.

It's expected that we may have to pay over the odds for somebody like Higuain or Aubameyang. If we announced Aubameyang for £60m I wouldn't complain.

Again, transfer fees are usually paid over the course of the player's contract. A £60m fee for a striker is paid over at least 4 years, and Arsenal makes a massive amount of money each year. Money is absolutely not a problem here the way I see it.

Damn, wish we'd spunk it on Benzema while Real gets Auba (as realistically Auba would prefer to go there and Real would pay the insane money Dortmund is asking).

Benzema to Arsenal isn't going to happen. For the past two seasons the boy has shown he is a Rolls Royce.Why come to a roadside mechanic for maintenance?

A mad roadside mechanic who builds things as he chooses regardless of their functionality or performance.

It's done lads. Look at that smile. He is already wearing an Arsenal shirt at home...

Nike or Puma though?

HomeSteak wrote:

It's done lads. Look at that smile. He is already wearing an Arsenal shirt at home...

Just watched that bit of the press conference, unless something was happening that made him smile off camera or there was a joke between him and the reporter that went unsaid, he really did go into full on smirk mode. Couldn't help himself!

I dunno guys, it just looks like he let off a sneaky fart without anyone noticing.

Yeah he is definitely interested. I watched the presser and he smirked at the point the reporter mentioned "our German colleagues reported about Granit...". Didn't deny it as well, just said he is looking at every player.

Wengers grins reveal nothing any more.