AS Roma are finally preparing a new bid to sign Granit Xhaka, after failing with their approach of just waiting for Arsenal to accept their old one. Arsenal are prepared to complete the deal now they have signed Albert Sambi Lokonga.

Granit Xhaka Switzerland after the victory against France Bucharest Bucuresti Romania Copyright: JustPictures.ch/JustPicturesPlus
Granit Xhaka Switzerland after the victory against France Bucharest Bucuresti Romania Copyright: JustPictures.ch/JustPicturesPlus

Fabrizio Romano reports that AS Roma are preparing a new bid to sign Granit Xhaka. They’ve already agreed personal terms with the player, who is pushing to join the club, so they’re feeling confident about completing the transfer.

For Arsenal’s part, Romano claims they’re open to completing the sale after signing Albert Sambi Lokonga.

Previous reports from Sky Sport Italia suggested AS Roma’s move for Xhaka was stalling because the club weren’t willing to pay Arsenal’s already-reduced €20m asking price for the player.

Xhaka has consistently remained their primary transfer target, but the two clubs had reached a bit of a deadlock.

Arsenal had turned down a €15m bid from Roma, and the suggestion from RomaPress at the time was that they didn’t intend to raise their offer.

But that strategy didn’t work out particularly well for them. This was a deal that was meant to be done before Xhaka’s participation at Euro 2020 began, and it’s still dragging on almost three weeks after his country exited the competition.

It won’t be long now until Xhaka has to re-join Arsenal for pre-season training, so the pressure is on Roma to ensure they agree a fee before then.