The One We Loved to Hate!

“Granit Xhaka, we want you to stay…Granit Xhaka, we want you to stay” – the chants reverberated around the Emirates as Granit Xhaka headed towards the bench after his midfield masterclass against Wolves. It took the Arsenal faithful seven years to come up with a Xhaka song. It took Xhaka seven years to make us fall for him.

Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal career is a melodrama – a volatile love story that had the relationship status set as, “it’s complicated”.  However, it began with a lot of promise. A strapping lad with an immaculate fade rocked up at the Emirates from Bundesliga. Hard as nails, up for a fight, a leader – the Swiss star from Monchengladbach was everything we craved for, for years. Arsene Wenger finally tore up his diminutive, tippy-tappy midfielder template, and went back to his OG blueprint of robust midfielders like Manu Petit, Gilberto Silva and Patrick Vieira. Vieira, oh, yes! Arsene had got us our new Vieira.

Xhaka wasn’t Paddy V, not even close! He did have Petit’s cultured left foot, but Paddy V, nah! He had the ‘don’t fuck with me’ attitude, but still, naaaah! He’s a yellow card on the move. At times, a dark orange. He made it easy for the refs: Xhaka tackles, flash the yellow. If you can see the studs…Red! No one ever doubted his creds as a player. He could find a pass, score bangers. He had the passion as well, at times too much of it, and that often led to – “Why Granit why? You didn’t need to do that! We were winning!”

Yet he was always a prime candidate for the captain’s armband. Top professional, great work ethic, an example off the field. We got all that, but is that enough to become the Arsenal captain? The Xhaka household often trusted a young Granit with the house keys, but the fans didn’t share the same confidence. It was too much for Granit as well. The boos became louder. The hate on social media, uncouth. And then the man threw a torch in the fuel against Crystal Palace. It was done. The dredge simmered over. The divorce papers were on the table, and he had his heart set on a return to Rhineland.

But that’s the funny thing about relationships, they’re never over. When we are in a relationship, the focus often shifts to broken promises and unfulfilled expectations. Even if the person tries hard to match up, we want it done our way. GX34 was brought in to be our midfield general. He tried to do it his way, but it didn’t line up with the way we wanted him to be. Sometimes, he played the wrong position, most times had no support, and a lot of times, he messed it up himself. 

He messed up a lot and we yearned for an upgrade. In the last three years, we have become experts about that ‘left 8’ position. We have Kai Havertz now, and also a healthy serving of Rice to shore up the midfield, but did we really want Xhaka to leave? Mikel had finally unlocked the much-promised box-to-box warrior. We still want more of his dark arts, we want him to protect the ball and fall over it as soon as someone touches him. We want him to shut down St. James’ Park, go head-to-head with Trent, throw a smirk at the camera after riling up Stamford Bridge. And of course, we want a few more Xhaka booms.

Now, it hurts. He leaves with a smile on his face, his head held high, and the fans have an emotional clot in their throats. He wasn’t perfect, in fact far from it, but he showed the value of second chances. He was real. He was flawed. He spoke his heart. We judged him. He judged us. We lashed out. He lashed back. We made him the scapegoat, he told us to fuck off. But he never hid. He fought for us, he fought with us, he refused to back down. Every game, every minute. The more venom we spewed at him, the more attached we became. Damn Granit! We loved hating you because deep inside, we absolutely fucking loved you!