Arsenal: Losing Granit Xhaka no bad thing

Granit Xhaka wants to leave Arsenal and join Hertha Berlin. Allowing him to leave would be no bad thing for a club that can find an improved replacement.

While Boxing Day featured Arsenal’s trip to Bournemouth, their first outing under new head coach Mikel Arteta, perhaps the biggest development involving the club came off the pitch, as, shortly after full-time, it was revealed that Granit Xhaka wanted to leave with an agreement with Hertha Berlin in place.

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According to BLICK, Xhaka’s agent, Jose Noguera, said:

"“We’ve reached an agreement with Hertha BSC and would like to go to Berlin. We have told Raul Sanllehi and sporting director, Edu Gaspar, that he wants to leave the club.”"

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Hertha Berlin are said to have submitted a €25 million bid for the midfielder and would like to sign him as early as this January transfer window. Meanwhile, Arteta stated that Xhaka would be a key player under his management, before then telling the player that he can leave in the summer. Xhaka is said to not be best pleased with Arteta for the confusing message.

At this stage, the details are very much up in the air. The only thing that is sure is that Xhaka wants to leave, perhaps due to the toxic relationship with the fans that may have been damaged irreparably when he told them to ‘f*ck off’ before being roundly booed by the entire Emirates Stadium.

But if Xhaka is keen to leave, Arsenal should not be afraid to let him, even if it leaves them a little light in central midfield as a result.

Put simply, Xhaka is a limited footballer. He has positive attributes, yes, and when given time on the ball, he can dictate and control matches, but there are severe weaknesses in his game that he is unable to overcome in other ways: his over-reliance on his left, his lack of defensive awareness, his limited athleticism and speed all diminish his overall value.

He put in one his best performances in some time in the Boxing Day draw with Bournemouth and will surely benefit from the protective coaching Arteta will provide, but it would be foolish to expect that he would overcome the serious deficiencies of his skill set. By nature, some of them are uncoachable.

With Matteo Guendouzi waiting in the wings, Joe Willock improving, and Arteta’s desire for a high-pressing approach that will only further expose some of Xhaka’s flaws, the Swiss international is not likely to be a part of Arsenal’s future plans. And should he fetch a decent fee, something close to the egregious £35 million he cost in the first place, that money could be usefully reinvested in other parts of the squad.

If Xhaka wants to leave, that is no bad thing. He is certainly not the useless incumbent many would have you believe, but he is also limited in style and unlikely to be a part of the club’s future. Selling, then, is quite alright.