First things first, I have to say, I’m not 100% happy about the fact that Granit Xhaka is returning to the Premier League for Sunderland. The first thing that popped into my head was ‘why?’ when I heard the rumour. He won the league with Leverkusen, he was a regular in their team last season, but unless he’s taken one look at Ten Haag and thought “nah, I’d rather be fighting for survival in the Premier League” (entirely feasible given the mess Ten Haag left United in by the time he left), it doesn’t really make sense.

I can only assume he’s been told that he’ll be a squad player next season rather than a first team regular and maybe he’s thought that, at 32 year’s of age, he needs more regular game time whilst he’s still at a physical best. It’s still weird though. I thought one of the reasons he went back to Germany was that his wife was also interested in heading back there (so I heard). Of course there was the challenge of working with Xavi Alonso and what he was doing in Leverkusen, but I would have thought Xhaka would have a few more glamorous places he could go and play football in than the North East. And having The Management with family from that part of the world, I can tell you know, there ain’t much glamour in Sunderland, that’s for sure. Mind you, I also have family in Cologne and Leverkusen is right next to it and I can also confirm there is bugger all in Leverkusen other than the Bayer factory.

But it is what it is, Granit will get a great reception at The Emirates next season and hopefully he has a good time up there in the upcoming season.

As for us, well, with all of the transfers done and one more Asia Tour game left to go, the in between time we have is filled with interviews. It’s full of people wanting soundbites, little snippets, the tiniest of ‘scoops’ to report back on and the one that is doing the rounds at the moment appears to be William Saliba saying positive things about a new contract. Needless to say, I think every Arsenal fan knows that he is a guy who we need to try to tie down to a longer term deal. The worry for me has always been that you just know that Real Madrid will come sniffing eventually and whilst that has only been a tentative noise so far, with two year’s left on his deal, efforts simply must be stepped up this summer.

On his part he’s been positive; he’s said to people that he’s happy and hopefully a deal can get done, that he wants to leave that to his agent, etc, etc. Arteta also said during last season that all of the noises are positive from him. There appears to be a happy camp on all parts, but as we know, that doesn’t necessarily always lead to a deal. The money will have to be right and Arsenal will need to be offering top dollar here, because if Real Madrid want him, they’ll be laying down the foundations for a Trent-style snaffling for free (or near free) in a couple of year’s time. If Arsenal can propose the right deal, that is good for him and gives him top billing (or close to) on the earnings list at The Arsenal, I have hope he will sign. He’s 24, he turns 25 in March next year and if you look at how he plays and how he reads the game, I don’t think he’s a centre half who starts to look old when his pace starts to depart him. He’s always been a strong and physical player with the ability to read the game well and whilst he’s not the same as Vin Dijk (he certainly doesn’t get the same level of preferential treatment from referees as the Dutchman does), I do think his ability to remain at the top of the game for longer is there.

So if you’re talking about him as a centre half who could – injury permitting – stay at the top for another ten years, then he still has time for that Madrid move if he signs another deal this summer. If Arsenal time him down to a four-plus-one deal, they have him covered until his 29-year-old season and it’ll probably mean that Madrid can come knocking in three or four years, with us getting a nice fee for him and being able to move on.

Of course that’s not what I want to happen; I want him to stick around for another 10 years and become an Arsenal legend, winning trophies and writing himself into Arsenal folklore. But the older you get, the more more you realise the transient nature of football and their careers (just look at Granit), you realise that it rarely works out that way. But Arsenal do need to move heaven and earth to get this one extended for a few years I feel. It appears as though a deal is there to be done and that’s where we need to see that Berta can deliver on all facets of his job. He’s done it with MLS and Big Gabby, but to me it has always felt as though the more difficult contract renewals will be Saka and Saliba. Get those over the line this summer and we’re talking.

Of course the other side to the transfer coins is also something we need to sort out is the outgoings – and doing it for decent money. Chelsea seem to cheat their way through big deal after big deal (although I suspect the letters ‘P’, ‘I’ and ‘F’ have something to do with it..), Liverpool can command decent money for back up centre halves, so the final piece of the Berta puzzle this summer will be those outgoings. If I was to put a number on it as a target, it would be:

Can you get us £75million in sales this summer?

I think that is achievable given some of the assets we have. If I break it down, I would see it as:

  • Reiss Nelson = loan with obligation to buy at £15million
  • Oleksandr Zinchenko = £15million
  • Fabio Vieira = £15million (West Ham supposedly sniffing)
  • Sambi Lokonga = £10million
  • Gabriel Jesus = loan with a £10million obligation to buy

We’ve already got £7million (ish – I think it’s just under that with the Euro conversion) for Tavares too, which brings us to £72million and then you’d hope that sales of players like Hein, etc, could net a few million here and there to bring that over the line. And I don’t think those fees above are over-valued. In fact in some instances I might be under valuing some of those experienced players. But if we’re netting £75million having spent around £200million in the summer, I suspect from a PSR point of view it leaves us in good shape.