The case for the Premier League\u2019s most consequential summer signing this season is straightforward and rooted in impact. Granit Xhaka arrived at Sunderland from Bayer Leverkusen for \u00a313 million and, four months into the campaign, has become the club\u2019s central figure.<\/p>\n
On Sunday he was forced off with a cut eyelid at the Stadium of Light, furious to leave a game he was dominating. He has played 1,423 of a possible 1,440 Premier League minutes this season, has supplied four assists and one goal, and averages one foul a game while collecting four yellow cards so far. His presence has helped Sunderland to 26 points and a position where safety looks within three wins.<\/p>\n
The derby win over Newcastle crystallised his value. Xhaka ran the show against Nick Woltemade, whose \u00a369 million move from Stuttgart ended in a spectacular own goal. Xhaka imposed himself physically, with a challenge on Lewis Miley, and tactically, using his left foot to switch play and directing teammates such as Bertrand Traor\u00e9 and Robin Roefs to cover threats.<\/p>\n
Sunderland\u2019s recruitment has been bold. The club spent \u00a3149 million on 11 new signings, yet only Xhaka, Simon Adingra from Brighton & Hove Albion and Bertrand Traor\u00e9 had prior experience in the English top flight. A three-year contract and the persuasiveness of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus underline the ambition behind the move.<\/p>\n
Xhaka\u2019s story is also one of redemption. Stripped of the captaincy at Arsenal under Unai Emery and sent to Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 for \u00a321 million after repeated suspensions, he rebuilt his reputation under Xabi Alonso. Kicker magazine described him as \u201cthe strategist\u201d. His coaching education and experience guiding younger players in training have equipped him to lead a newly promoted side.<\/p>\n
Compared with high-profile signings elsewhere\u2014Hugo Ekitike\u2019s 10 goals in 23 games for Liverpool since his \u00a369 million move, Martin Zubimendi settling at Arsenal after a \u00a360 million transfer, or Gianluigi Donnarumma\u2019s assured displays at Manchester City\u2014the defining metric for Xhaka is transformation. For sheer influence on a club\u2019s season, few signings match his effect at Sunderland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Granit Xhaka’s arrival has transformed Sunderland, providing leadership, minutes and derby influence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[969,689],"tags":[1081,1064,1006],"class_list":["post-5102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-sunderland","tag-adaptation","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102","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=5102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}