From the Athletic below. Nothing new.
Sunderland hold an interest in signing Granit Xhaka from Bayer Leverkusen.
The 32-year-old former Arsenal midfielder has played a key role for Leverkusen across his two seasons at the Bundesliga side, making 99 appearances and helping the club to the first Bundesliga title and DFB-Pokal in 2023-24.
Xhaka’s Leverkusen contract runs through to 2028 and he is also the subject of interest from Saudi Arabia.
The Switzerland captain previously spent seven years at Arsenal, where he made 297 appearances and won the FA Cup in 2016-17 and 2019-20
Newly-promoted Sunderland have been active in the transfer market this summer and have already signed six players, including making midfielder Enzo Le Fee’s loan move permanent.
The newly-promoted club have also signed central midfielder Habib Diarra, wingers Simon Adringra and Chemsdine Talbi, full-back Reinildo and the versatile Noah Sadiki.
Diarra and Sadiki will give Sunderland depth in central midfield positions but they are also keen to add Xhaka following the sale of Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund earlier this summer.
Xhaka would become the latest high profile exit from Leverkusen this summer, after Florian Wirtz joined Liverpool in a club record €136.3million (£116m) transfer, while Jeremie Frimpong also departed for Anfield after the Premier League champions activated his €35million (£29.6m;$39.3m) release clause.
Erik ten Hag was appointed Leverkusen’s new head coach earlier this summer, succeeding Xabi Alonso following the Spaniard’s move to Real Madrid.