Manchester City’s optimistic approach to land highly rated Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri is no secret and with financial prowess they possess well Guardiola will get his man albeit financial fairplay coming into action although City are already threatened to miss out on Champions League due to being found guilty for not following FFP Rules.
Although, as I said – with the financial prowess City possess, Guardiola will get his man more often than not.
But… Why am I talking about it here on Arsenalcore?
Atletico Madrid are wasting no time in finding potential Rodri replacement and unsurprisingly the name of Granit Xhaka has made rounds.
The Mirror reported Atletico Madrid’s willingness to replace City-bound Rodri with Granit Xhaka.
Talking about the money, well that shouldn’t be an issue for Spanish side as they already have loads of it coming in from potential £62 million Rodri deal and god-knows-how-much from Antoine Greizemann’s deal.
Although, its gonna be a tough ask for Diego Simone to bring Granit Xhaka to Capital City of Spain, as his counterpart, Arsenal manager Unai Emery considers Swiss captain as one of his key players.
Xhaka featured in all Premier League games for Arsenal in Unai Emery’s first season until he was forced out due to groin injury, and the Gunners lost three of the six matches he missed before going on to lose Europa League finals against Chelsea where he started and featured for full ninety minutes.
Signed for £35 million from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2016, Xhaka is valued much more by Arsenal now.
Xhaka was linked with a move to Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan few weeks back but things fail to materialize and the Swiss admitted his willingness to stay at The Emirates and fight for the Captain’s arm band which suggests it will take efforts to take him to Madrid.
Although, Marcos Llorente is Atletico’s first choice replacement but Real Madrid are reluctant to sell him to their city rivals.
Llorente is keen on transforming foes to Wanda Metropolitano but will come with price tag of £44.7 million which has forced Atletico to search for other options.
Talking about Granit Xhaka, this will surely divide opinions as some Arsenal fans highly rate Granit while there are some who feel he doesn’t belong in London. But no Gooners would admit Granit Xhaka was best we’ve seen him become, under management of Unai Emery last season.
Granit Xhaka’s midfield partner Lucas Torreira also suggested having hurdles settling in London which led to AC Milan eyeing the Uruguayan and giving him a path back to Italy.
Although as things stand, Arsenal do not want either of them to leave despite Emery’s need of funds to £40 million budget this summer.
The club is willing to hear offers for the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil, Mohamed Elneny, Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny.
