Granit Xhaka January Transfer Odds

Following Granit Xhaka’s straight red card in Arsenal’s 1-0 home defeat by Burnley on 13th December, the Switzerland national team captain’s future has gone up in the air again, with under-pressure Gunners manager Mikel Arteta looking to potentially shift the 28-year-old off the wage books to make way for new signings in the January transfer window.

Xhaka is now in his fifth season at the Emirates Stadium and was bought in the final year of Arsene Wenger’s 22-year regime for £35m from Borussia Monchengladbach and has failed to impress during his time at the Gunners, with many being confused as to what position in the midfield he actually plays, as well as the fact that he has a reputation for being hot-headed, receiving 37 yellow and three red cards since his move from Germany. Xhaka looked in serious danger of being axed altogether by Arsenal last season under former manager Unai Emery after the former Basel midfielder was booed off when substituted in his sides 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace in October last year; before cupping his ears to the crowd to antagonise them even more whilst taking his shirt off. This incident saw Emery strip Xhaka of his captaincy. After five seasons of below-par performances in England, the Switzerland international has been linked with moves away to the Serie A, which could be of some benefit to his game, with it naturally being a slower-paced league, alike the Bundesliga which he previously thrived in.

Inter Milan is Xhaka’s most likely destination, with Antonio Conte’s side looking for cover in the central midfield areas with the former Chelsea manager opting to choose the 5-2-3 or 5-2-1-2 formations this season, with the likes of Arturo Vidal getting on at the age of 33-years-old and Christian Eriksen falling out of favour. Although Inter do have eight central midfielders already on their books and may have to offload a couple of them before they sign Xhaka, but, having signed many former Premier League players of late such as Matteo Darmian, Ashley Young, Alexis Sanchez, Alexander Kolarov, Christian Eriksen and Romelu Lukaku, it would not surprise if Conte does delve into the market for the Swiss midfielder, hence why this move Is priced at 3/1 to happen in January.

AS Roma are the outsiders at 14/1 to sign Xhaka, alike Inter, Paulo Fonseca’s side have recently signed players who have previously played in the Premier League, such as Chris Smalling from Manchester United and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was teammates with the Swiss midfielder at Arsenal. But, due to the current economic climate, Roma did struggle to get the deal to sign Smalling from United done, leaving it till deadline day to stump up €15m rising to €20m, and did fear losing young Italy star Nicolo Zaniolo due to their financial crisis. The most likely way of Roma signing Xhaka would realistically be like the Mkhitaryan and Smalling deals, where they initially spent a season on loan at the Stadio Olimpico before signing permanently.