Bundesliga side Schalke are keen to keep Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac beyond his loan spell this season, but can only do so if they avoid relegation.
That’s according to Ruhr 24, who say Schalke are working on a ‘special coup’ to make the defender’s return a permanent one.
Kolasinac returned to his former club from Arsenal in the January transfer window, waiving part of his wages to sign a loan deal until the end of the season and help in their fight against relegation.
He’s been a massive hit since, providing the kind of leadership and drive that the club had been lacking earlier this season.
Schalke now have an outside chance of avoiding relegation, although that remains ‘almost impossible at this moment in time’.
Regardless of what happens, Kolasinac is set to return to Arsenal come the summer, with his loan deal not including a purchase option for the struggling Germans.
RUHR 24 explain that in the event of relegation the left-back could not be kept as he simply wouldn’t be affordable, even if he were to waiver some of his wages.
The situation could look different, however, if they were to avoid relegation and the club ‘would love’ to sign the Bosnian permanently.
“That is our absolute dream,” sports director Jochen Schneider is reported as saying.
“He’s an incredibly good guy, lives for the club, pushes and pulls the cart. Sead embodies Schalke like no other.
“Of course, it is our wish to keep him until the end of his career and beyond.”
