Newcastle’s hopes of signing Granit Xhaka have struck a blow with Arsenal ready to offer their former captain back to Borussia Monchengladbach.
In return, Arsenal are keen to sign Gladbach star man Denis Zakaria.
Xhaka’s Arsenal career is all but at an end after he disrespected his own fans as he was booed from the field at the Emirates Stadium earlier this month, with Unai Emery accepting it will be just about impossible to reintroduce him to the fold.
Reports recently emerged Newcastle had sounded out Arsenal chiefs to recruit Xhaka on loan from January.
However, The Sun claim Emery and the rest of Arsenal’s recruitment team appear to have their own ideas for what to do with the midfielder.
It has even been suggested that Arsenal would be willing to pay a proportion of Xhaka’s wages if it enabled them to push through a deal for Zakaria, who they regard as a younger, more athletic version of the player that would be leaving.