Chelsea reach ‘full verbal agreement’ over personal terms with Granit Xhaka — reports

The hot rumor of the day involves none other than Granit Xhaka, with the likes of Sky Deutschland reporting that Chelsea have “full verbal agreement” over personal terms with the midfielder. (“Deal on”, says Fabrizio.)

In a way, the only surprising thing about this development is that it took this long. After being hounded out of Arsenal, Xhaka resurrected his career under Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, and his reputation as a strong leader only grew after he played a key role in helping newly promoted Sunderland finish seventh last season and qualify for the Europa League. (It’s only the second time in their history that they qualified for Europe.) He’s currently at the World Cup, captaining Switzerland to top spot in Group B and into the knockout rounds.

Given those accomplishments, reputation, and shared history, it’s easy to see why Alonso might want Xhaka at Chelsea — especially with the expected departure of Enzo Fernández. Xhaka is not the player Enzo is overall, but his leadership qualities would be a tremendous boon for the squad. And he would form a solid midfield partnership with Moisés Caicedo, with the likes of Andrey Santos, Dário Essugo, and Roméo Lavia all filling rotational roles.

Sunderland paid £13+4m last summer to get Xhaka, and though he may be 33, they would likely turn a tidy profit given our penchant for overpaying. Chelsea are said to be in contact with them to negotiate a fee.