Despite Sunderland standing firm on their position that Granit Xhaka is not for sale this summer, Chelsea believe their chances of signing him are ‘not over yet’.
The Black Cats made it clear on Friday that Xhaka was going to commit his future to Sunderland, with them ready to play in Europe next season.
This is despite early claims that Xhaka had already agreed personal terms with the Blues, and was very keen on working with Xabi Alonso again.
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Chelsea’s quest to sign Granit Xhaka ‘not over yet’
The updates yesterday were very much pushed from Sunderland’s side, who made a social media post hinting that he was staying at the club.
However, Simon Phillips posted on his Substack on Friday evening that negotiations are still ongoing between the two clubs regarding a possible move.
He said: “When the news came out earlier, I had this from my top source at 5pm – we are still negotiating for Granit Xhaka. Not saying we will get him, but I also feel there could be an element of Sunderland pushing that news out today as their tough stance on the fee.
“Xhaka is at the World Cup and in the middle of important games, he’s only concentrating on that so would not have had any important talks with Sunderland about it today. Deal still looks unlikely, but not over yet.”
The midfielder recently performed well to help his side book their place in the Round of 16 of the World Cup, setting up a tie with Colombia.
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Chelsea are notoriously famous for not signing experienced players under this new leadership, and are far less keen on the signing than Alonso is.
However, they will be well aware that not backing the new manager this early on would instantly get themselves off to a bad start.
Chelsea did well to even convince Alonso to take over as manager after how they treated the likes of Liam Rosenior and Enzo Maresca previously, and should be doing whatever they can to back the new boss.
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