Congrats to Granit Xhaka for his Bundesliga fairytale, but I wouldn’t have him back at Arsenal | OneFootball

Ex Gunner soon to be a champion!

Well my fellow Gooners it looks as though our title race will go down to the wire, but one of our ex-players has a more comfortable title race in his hands!

Granit Xhaka and his new club Bayer Leverkusen are on the brink of greatness in the German league as they are only one more win away from winning the Bundesliga title – after 11 years of pure dominance by Bayern Munich.

With that said Gooners, my question to you is would you take Xhaka back after he will be crowned a potential German Bundesliga winner after only just one season away from the Emirates?

Now I’m sure this article will split fans but for me I know for one I would not take Xhaka back.

Despite his great form for us in his last few seasons at Arsenal it could be argued that he was past his best and had he stayed he may not have been able to replicate the same for us this season.

Although it would have been nice to see the Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Xhaka partnership in midfield at times during our season I think it’s safe to say that, although it was disappointing and a bit of a shock that Xhaka left so soon after Arsenal finally challenged for the title, and needing only a few more additions to the squad to mount yet another one this season.

For me it wasn’t a surprise that he decided to up and leave only because it showed some of his true colours and that for me is a sense of disloyalty to the fanbase and to Mikel Arteta.

And ill tell you why I say it is disloyalty… because after his outburst during that Crystal Palace game many years ago, many of the Arsenal and football fans in general failed to see a way back for Xhaka at Arsenal.

Many Arsenal fans even thought it would have been his last game in an Arsenal shirt however in comes the hero of the hour, Arteta, who magically whispered words to Xhaka, and lo and behold he would remain at the club for at least another few years.

By remaining at the club Xhaka went from zero to hero and many fans stuck by him and that saw him quickly become yet again a fan favourite and was quite popular with the Arsenal fans even bagging himself his own chant from the stands.

For the last four years Arteta managed to bring out somewhat of the best in Xhaka and it saw him bag some important goals for us as well as improving his disciplinary record, which lets put it this way was abysmal prior to Arteta coming in, although he had his moments it was a sure improvement.

Although he wasn’t a prolific goal scorer he did score 12 goals in three seasons under Arteta (7 in his final season) and 11 goals in his four years prior to that. But since joining Leverkusen he has just one goal to his name in eight months and in the games I have seen, although he does shoot at goal, it seems that is one part of his game that he has reined in compared to what he used to do at Arsenal.

Let’s also not forget Xhaka is 31 years old and is surely at the end of his career whereas the likes of Rice and Odegaard are both 25 years old and are just getting into the peak of their careers and will be with us for a long time I hope.

So although we had some ups and downs with Xhaka and although it was sad to see him go, thinking about it now ultimately it was the right decision by Arsenal, and I for sure would not have him back even if he came begging (which would never happen I’m sure).

But I wish him well on his quest for his first trophy at his new club which seems not so far away.

Let’s put it this way, anything or anyone who can stop Harry Kane from lifting a trophy is a legend in my eyes 😜

Gooners would you take Xhaka back if that was ever to be an option?

Shenel Osman

@sh3n3l_

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