Arsenal: Xabi Alonso Would Have Paved Way For Granit Xhaka

Arsenal missed out on Xabi Alonso, which is tragic in and of itself, but it would have paved the way for a very similar Granit Xhaka and set the table for him.

By now, everyone has heard the fantastic news that Arsenal was a teeny tiny £3m away from signing the hallmark midfield distributor, Xabi Alonso, back in 2009. Whether that would have been the winning bid or not is obviously still a question, but the token Arsene Wenger underbid cost the Gunners gain.

Now that Alonso is 35 years old and nearing the end, we can look back and wonder what could have been while looking forward to what will be. And the correlation is pretty noteworthy. So much so that there is another massive perk that Alonso would have brought along with him.

The Spaniard is a very similar player to Granit Xhaka. Similar in type, that is; experience will determine the rest. They aren’t midfield wreckers or crafty attacking types. They are distributors who dwell over the ball, spread out play, hold down the middle of the pitch and dabble in a few other facets as well.

Seeing Xhaka occupying this role has led to serious criticism because it isn’t exactly clear what he is supposed to be. Wenger wants him to be a box-to-box midfielder, but that doesn’t seem quite right, as he doesn’t have the speed to allow that.

Supporters were likely expecting a defensive midfielder, as we have been lacking one for so long.

But it’s clear through his performances that his similarities to Alonso are the best way to categorize him. He is a distribution center. It’s not the most common type of midfielder out there, but Alonso mastered the role with some of the best clubs in the world and Xhaka is now on the path to accomplishing similar.

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Had Alonso came to Arsenal back then, we would have gotten a better feel for the perks of having such a midfielder and, ideally, Wenger would have found a better way to utilize it than what he is trying to do with Xhaka.

Which means that, when Xhaka came to town (had we signed Alonso), several things would have happened. First of all, we would have had a much better idea of what Xhaka was here to do, having seen Alonso do it so successfully. It would have raised the stakes a bit, but Xhaka is a talented lad and could have lived up to it.

Secondly, assuming Alonso would have stayed with the Gunners, he would have been able to acclimate Xhaka better to the role, rather than letting him flounder about, trying to be everything from a CAM to a defensive mid to a box-to-box.

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Alonso has become a legend at his role and ideally, Xhaka will too. The similarities are developing, all we need to see from Xhaka is more. That’s it. In time, he could come to be the next Xabi Alonso.

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