Ever since the mid-season, when Xabi Alonso’s expedition revealed championship ambitions, and especially after Bayern Munich’s eleven-year reign of terror ended and the title was won, it was clear that this summer, the European giants would try to destroy the newly minted ruler of the Bundesliga.Victor Boniface, Jeremy Frimpong, Florian Wirtz seemed like the most attractive options, but as the super-talented German revealed that he will stay at the BayArena at least in the next season, and as the bigger beasts from the ‘top five’ leagues did not go hunting for the Nigerian striker and the Dutch winger, as the first favorite to leave the Pharmacists was Jonathan Tah, a big desire of Bayern Munich.The Bavarians targeted the German international practically from the start of the transfer window, and Granit Xhaka spoke about his teammate and the pillar of the defense at Leverkusen’s training camp in Donauschingen.”Everyone knows that Bayern is a big club. And big clubs want big players. That should be an honor for Jonathan. We know what and how much he means to our team. He also knows the status of Leverkusen. He is aware that we are champions. It is his decision. I’d like Jon to stay with us. He makes a great impression. He’s just as focused as I was last season. We all hope he stays with us.”##NAJAVA_MECA_8244218##The question of all questions ahead of the new Bundesliga season, which begins on August 23, is whether Leverkusen have the strength to, after a kind of flash, distance Bayern from the title once again and, like Klopp’s Dortmund (2010/11 and 2011/12), tie two national championship titles together.”We want even more. Not only this year, but we also want to be at the top in the years to come. We know that the pressure is a shade higher now than last year. We want to deal with it in the best way possible. This means that our more experienced players we need to take the youth with us… And I don’t think that something will happen by itself. I feel that we have to do more than last year. With or without Jonathan…”##EDITORS_CHOICE##Since arriving at the Emirates from Mönchengladbach in 2016 in a transfer worth 45,000,000 euros, Xhaka wore the Arsenal jersey for seven years, played almost 300 games as a Gunner and paradoxically after statistically the most dominant season on the Island (30 games, seven goals and seven assists), went from an English giant to the then ‘Neverkusen’ who recently lost that age-old, disparaging epithet. Last summer, many talked about the career decline of the Swiss, who entered his fourth decade of life. It is an understatement to say that Xhaka shut those badmouthers up.”It wasn’t a step back for me. I’d rather say I took two steps forward. I had the same feeling when I spoke with the coach and with Simon Rolfes. I felt that something special could happen here in the next few years.”At the EURO2024, Xhaka earned an injury in the form of a muscle tear.”It was my first holiday with an injury. A completely different situation for me. In order to stay physically fit and be able to do my runing sequences, I did the program that the club gave me. After 13, 14 days, the tingling started but now I don’t feel pain and that’s the most important thing,” concluded the Swiss.🗣️ Granit Xhaka: “The move from Arsenal to Bayer Leverkusen was not a step back, but rather two steps forward…” 🔴⚫️[@BILD_Bayer04] pic.twitter.com/fid5sfsKxt— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) July 30, 2024
