Chelsea must reset their midfield recruitment after Granit Xhaka decided to remain at Sunderland. The veteran Swiss had been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge, with the reported attraction of reuniting with Alonso, but Sunderland and Chelsea never agreed a fee.<\/p>\n
An opening offer of \u00a38 million ($10.7 million) was rejected, and sources say Xhaka has made further negotiations redundant. According to Sky Sports, he is choosing to stay at Sunderland.<\/p>\n
Talks between Xhaka and Sunderland appear to have persuaded the player to stay. The former Arsenal captain has “reaffirmed his commitment” to Sunderland and one of the “decisive factors” was the chance to lead the club into European competition after qualification for the Europa League following an unexpected but deserved seventh-place finish.<\/p>\n
At the end of last season Xhaka told Sunderland fans, “I can promise you from my side as captain of the football club, this is just the beginning and we want more.” A close relationship with supporters on Wearside is cited as a factor in his decision, though that sentiment had briefly been set aside during the summer speculation.<\/p>\n
Chelsea now continue to seek an experienced midfield presence. The squad has other areas in flux. Centre back Trevoh Chalobah appears set to leave, with Inter or Crystal Palace both mooted as destinations. There is ongoing uncertainty over Tosin Adarabioyo, one of the few players in the squad over the age of 26, and Marc Cucurella is already gone.<\/p>\n
On incoming business Chelsea have completed the signings of right back Marco Palestra, aged 21, and teenage winger Geovany Quenda from Sporting CP. Valent\u00edn Barco, who turns 22 later this month, has publicized his departure from BlueCo sister club Strasbourg and is expected at Chelsea, though his profile does little to address the club’s need for leadership.<\/p>\n
There had been a suggestion that Andrey Santos might be sold to make room for Xhaka. With Xhaka staying at Sunderland, Santos’s future is now less clear and Chelsea must reassess how to balance experience and youth in their squad for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xhaka has chosen to stay at Sunderland, forcing Chelsea to revisit their midfield recruitment plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[944],"class_list":["post-16212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-andrey-santos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}