Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi’s futures are far from certain this summer, according to reports, as the pair are apparently failing to live up to their hype. Is that really true though?
James Olley writes in the Evening Standard that the pair represent a ‘transfer failure’, and that with hindsight mistakes were made that summer. Let’s have a look at both players:
2Shkodran Mustafi
As with Xhaka, Olley compares Mustafi to other signings at the time: “During the same window, City paid Everton £47.5m for John Stones, United signed Eric Bailly from Villarreal for £30m.
“Bayern Munich opted for Mats Hummels in a £21m move from Dortmund, the same figure Barcelona handed to Lyon for Samuel Umtiti.”
In this case, you have to admit that looks bad. John Stones was extremely expensive, but looks like he’ll pay off that fee in the long run. Meanwhile the other three were all cheaper than Mustafi, and all look a lot less error-prone.
In the last week and a half, three different players in different matches have caught Mustafi napping and stolen in for a goal. I can’t think of any other £30m+ centre-back in the world consistently making the same mistake game after game.
It also doesn’t seem like taking Mustafi out of the team makes much difference. Arsenal didn’t lose any of the three league matches he missed in December, and only conceded one goal. That’s after they went 2-0 down to Manchester United in 15 minutes with him in the team, largely thanks to his mistakes.
Arsenal lost three of the nine league matches Mustafi missed this season (33%). Meanwhile, they lost eight of the 24 matches he did play in (33%). We need more than a defender whose presence is irrelevant.