While there were whispers in the English media that Newcastle United could be interested in Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, Swiss journalists are pushing it hard.
On Wednesday, we covered an interview with Marcello Pelizzari, a journalist for Il Corriere del Ticino, who said the option to move to St James’ Park would be a ‘welcome one’ for the Swiss midfielder, and now we’ve got another.
That man is RSI’s Giacomo Moccetti, who had a chat with Pianeta Milan about Xhaka’s situation, as a number of outlets have been sending him to the Serie A club after it was claimed he was looking at houses in the Italian city.
He said: “I can confirm that Newcastle and Milan are the two teams that are currently in talks with Xhaka. The first would logistically be the simplest solution because he would stay in England and in a league he knows.
“With Milan, there’s a reciprocal serious interest and it’s true that he has gathered information in Milan of where he could live. He wouldn’t mind going back to the Bundesliga either, but there’s no option there at the moment. Inter have more appeal than Milan, because they are in the Champions League and in a better period, but there aren’t real talks with them.”
That’s certainly a step further than what Pelizzari made it out to be just 24 hours or so ago, so either things have moved along then, or Moccetti is embellishing where things stand.
Either way, it seems Steve Bruce really would like to bring Xhaka to the north of England if he can, but the competition does remain strong.
He does have the advantage that Newcastle are in the Premier League, though.
