Why I TURNED DOWN Chelsea & Owe Mikel Arteta EVERYTHING! | Granit Xhaka Exclusive

0:02This is a global production. First of all, I was very, very happy for one guy and this is Mike Larteta. Because he's the guy who brings me to another level where I am today. And without him, 2019, I had no chance to come out on myself.

0:30Nedum Onuoha:Hello, welcome to the Sports Agents. Have you used your Sunderland connections here, Nadam? I mean, if Granit Xhaka was to even know who I was, I mean, what a big moment that would be. Well, as you will hear in a moment, when we play you the interview, because we have recorded it, he was well briefed on... The important things. On the important things, yeah. That goal against Chelsea. November 15th, 2010. Give or take, yeah. he's a really interesting interviewee as well yeah absolutely he's got so much experience he's a really good talker and to be honest the places that he's been have been really interesting you know Arsenal in early Arteta seeing him at Leverkusen win a league title and you know Leverkusen's a big name but I didn't realise before that that they'd never won a league title before and then now to be a Sunderland seeing Maccams on their way to Milan it's not too bad is it it isn't but he will talk about Arteta and Alonso and why he went to Sunderland and why he stayed at Sunderland this summer.

1:30Nedum Onuoha:But he'll also take us back, as you will hear in this, to when he was four years old and having to be in charge of his younger brother because his parents were working. So it's a varied interview and covers all sorts of aspects of his life and career. Here he is, Granit Xhaka, the Sunderland captain on the Sports Agent. Granit, thank you very much for doing this. I'm very disappointed that just before we started recording, the first thing you mentioned is Nadam scoring for Sunderland. Chappers. Is that what you get when you join Sunderland? One of the first things you're told about? As well, yes, for sure.

2:07I mean, we get many, many things, to be honest, but this one is for sure on the top three, yes. Listen, that's Sunderland's captain talking about me from 2010. Listen, I don't need to say any more, Chappers. Please, you go away.

2:19Nedum Onuoha:How would you, Granit, describe the last year that you've had, the 12 months since you joined Sunderland, both personally and as a team? For sure, personally, it was a big step, again, to come abroad, to come to the Premier League. Had many doubts from people outside. Can he do it again? He's fit enough. He has the legs, all these things. I got a lot of criticism as well from people, why he's coming from Evercousen to a promoted team. But for me, from the beginning, I knew what I wanted and it's exactly what in the end came out. Don't misunderstand me, of course. The seventh was not the plan, but the plan was to be in the Premier League this season as well.

3:05But I think we deserved the last season. It was amazing from our side. So through your career, you've been a captain at basically all the clubs that you've been at. What is a leader to you? How do you view your own leadership? Do you lead by example? Are you a vocal leader? There are times when I watch you on the field and I can see you orchestrating so many things around you. Is this who you've always been? Or is it somebody that you became? I believe that you're born like a leader, you don't become like a leader. This is a natural leader, I think. This is me. Even if I'm at home with my family, I like to be an example.

3:41I like to lead myself without speaking too much, but showing first on the pitch. And of course, you have different type of days where you need to be more loud or less. But for me, the most important thing is I'm demanding a lot for myself first. And secondly, I demand for my team as well to do a good job. And the guys are listening. The guys want to improve. We have a very young squad as well. And yeah, just taking my experience from abroad, from many, many different type of clubs, coach is what I learned as well and try to bring it here to Sunderland. So when you say you believe you're born a leader, did you feel that you were leading even as a kid?

4:26Yeah, I think the story with the key now maybe in UK everyone knows. I got the key from the house already before. So I knew that I have a big responsibility about the key. So I went to the school, went to the nursery with a key and knew that I can't lose it. Otherwise, we are in big trouble with my brother. And everything started there. They give me already the type of leading as well in the family with my brother together and just being myself and trying to lead the things from age four. So you talk about leadership and obviously you're a captain. Unfortunately, in, say, the history of football, there was that game in 2019 for Arsenal where your shirt comes off, you walk off the field, and it's something that's probably etched in the minds of many people.

5:17Nedum Onuoha:Some Arsenal fans actually cheering as they take off their captain, Granit Xhaka, who looks rather unimpressed by being hauled off at this stage. He's going to be replaced by Pukaya Saka. He started the last four Premier League games. and Xhaka's reaction there, not good not good at all he's virtually cheered off by his own side but if you were a captain that day and there was a player that did that what would you say to them? how would you be with them? wow, that's a good question I mean I was a captain of the football club in Arsenal this time as well And what happened on this day, I think, was a big, big, big misunderstanding between the fans and myself.

6:09These first three years in Arsenal, there was big chaos in the club. We had many changes with Arsenal Wenger as well. He left after 22 years. Many new phases in the dressing room. The dressing room was not always easy as well. And, yeah, when you are a captain, you need to take a lot of good things, but as well bad things. And yeah, 2019 I got, well I was the one guy who the people were speaking a lot about me, about the mistakes, about the red cards, about the yellow cards and everything was negative in the club, granite's fault. Everything was positive, the others was good. So, and yeah, I call it like a misunderstanding.

6:49I believe that what I did was not good, from my side for sure not, but as well from a fan side not. But if I can change this time in this moment, I would. But this moment helped me for the next couple of years a lot. And that's why I think who I am today is because of this day. You answered the question well, but you didn't necessarily answer it the way I thought you would. Just because I would like to know, for example, if this happened on the weekend against Arsenal from one of your own teammates, how would you manage that situation now as their captain? I will leave him alone. I will leave him in this moment alone because he has a reason behind and this is what the people don't see and I had my reason as well so of course I didn't speak about the reason yet because there were so many many things and I'm more than happy to keep it on the side if it's possible but it's not easy you know if you have 60 ,000 people against you kill yourself let's call it like this you're not good enough others are better and all these things and yeah I mean you can do it in a different way but not like this.

7:56Nedum Onuoha:I often think, Granit, through the years of doing this job and being a fan and talking to footballers and people within football, that everything else that goes on within a football club or even within a player's lives does kind of get forgotten by us, the fans. And I include myself in this. It's sometimes an expectation of footballers to be robots and forget about everything else. It's difficult and you are completely right, but this was our choice. I started to kick the ball with four, so I knew from the age of four that people will speak good, we speak bad, whatever. Some of them, they like you, some of them not.

8:44But of course, in the end, we are human beings like everyone else. and this is what the people maybe from outside forget we have our problems as well at home you are not feeling well today you are sick whatever can happen everything but in the end we need to smile in this 90 minutes we need to smile in front of the cameras we can't always say what we wish you know it as well how is it but how I say sometimes you need to to try to to put it on the side and just to accept things what what comes from outside

9:13Nedum Onuoha:Moving on from when that happened, the three environments you have been in at club level since then, Mikel Arteta at the start of his rebuild and that environment that he created when you were there, and Xavi Alonso then at Bayer Leverkusen, and now what you have at Sunderland with Regis Labris, they're all very different types of men, I assume, but are there environments that they have created similar? 100 % yes. The dressing rooms are the same. And I believe and I'm a big believer about the dressing room. If the dressing room is right, you don't have these problems. Because the dressing room with Mikel was amazing.

9:55With Jabby was amazing. So you had these young players, you have the experienced players. The energy was there. The commitment was there. The desire was there to work. and then you come here. I just said before, my first step in the dressing room had exactly the same feeling. Here, we can build something big because of this mentality, of the desire, of the people around who want to work. You find always lazy people. Don't misunderstand me. But you pay for it as well when you have this type of dressing room or these people in a dressing room inside.

10:30Nedum Onuoha:So you felt that, did you? As soon as you joined Sunderland and walked into that dressing room, you felt that same feeling? Straight, straight away. The first step I did in the dressing room and I saw the players, I saw the phases of them. I had a very positive feeling and I knew exactly that we can build something big here.

10:56when you look back at say your time at Arsenal then do you think the change in the dressing room is what led them to be more competitive in terms of a title race and ultimately winning the league last year first of all you need a coach who has the power and who has the the mindset the mentality the courage to put this place in the dressing room. And it's not easy. It was not easy for Mikkel, but I'm not speaking only about the dressing room. I'm speaking about all the trains ground. I believe the people behind the scenes are the most important people. And when Mikkel came, he put maybe 60, 70 people in one room.

11:39There was chairs everywhere. And he told us like, you guys are looking like chaos from outside. So the first thing, we took a chair, we put it in the right place, and he said to us, I want you guys to be like this. Organised, to be lovely with each other, to know the names of the old building who is working with you. And this shows me as well about the respect between each other. Because you can make mistakes on this level. This is part of the job. But in the end, it's about the human being and the respect between each other.

12:11Nedum Onuoha:I know we've talked about, therefore, you had that at Leverkusen and you now have that as Sunderland. But setting the right culture seems such an obvious thing to those of us who aren't within a football club. It seems like the most normal thing in the world. Know everybody's name, make sure everybody's nice, so on and so forth. But it's rarer than you would think, is it? Yeah, to find the right people in the dressing room is the most important and the most difficult part, I think, from the club side. Because you can find the quality. You have always good quality players. you have the money, you pay the fee but the right people and to get the right puzzle I believe this is the most difficult thing I think that's completely fair because for the places that I've been where it hasn't gone well it's because people aren't necessarily pulling in the same direction everybody has talent but I don't know if you'd agree with this Granit but through my career when you're winning everybody feels the same when you're losing, everybody has a different idea about why you're not winning games of football that's in the worst case scenario when you start to find the wrong characters that are all pulling in opposite directions i think that's when things kind of fall apart would you agree absolutely and even more when you have 15 or 16 new phases in one summer we are not speaking here about 60 new players in seven years we are speaking about 60 new players in the same summer and to get the connection as quick as possible this is a big part of the club big part of the coach and the staffs to get the connection between each other how how that how did did you know what when you mention it like that how how did you manage as a group of 16 17 new players into Sunderland to to create that bond because it must be it must be stuff away from the training field as well so first of all the owner and the sports director they knew exactly what they need so they are taking the quality for sure but the most important is the human being the person who is the person behind the scenes what he can bring to this new dressing room to this new football club and then of course is a job from the coach the staff but as well from us leaders the experienced players for example myself like a captain to get the connection between each other we have french speaking we have german speaking here we have english we have guys from africa every is different culture different mentality everyone grew grew up different but the connection about the football on the pitch of the pitch is the key somebody somebody once told me that when i don't want to tell you who it was it was paul warne at rotherham i do mention this every now and then he really i think he may have took over mid-season but he but he realized at the end of the season that nobody really knew why everybody else was playing football what was their reason for playing football so he had a he had a barbecue at the start of the following season so that people could talk about their families, talk about their upbringing, talk about what had happened to their parents or who they were married to or whatever so that everybody then understood what the motivation was for playing football because people will have different reasons and different backgrounds.

15:22Absolutely. That's why I'm calling as well players, yes, but as well families is important, you know, To have this connection between the missus that we have, the girlfriends, whoever is married and not with the kids. I think this connection is important as well, not just us players to understand each other very well, you know. So what is your motivation then? Because this last, say, few months, there were rumours about you potentially going to Chelsea to be part of, to be linking up with Xabi Alonso again, the manager where you went invincible. You know, Nevekuzin became the champions Leverkusen.

15:59What's your motivation right now? Why are you still at Sunderland a year on after helping them qualify for Europe? And you can sort of turn your back on a project at Chelsea, which I'm sure many people will be excited about. So from the beginning, last season, when I signed the contract here, there was a plan behind the scenes. And the plan was to stick to this project, to believe in this project, and to work for this project. And I always say to myself and to the people around, I didn't come here for one season. And of course, it's a big privilege for myself that the Jabi Alonso, who I worked with, he wanted me again.

16:33It's a big privilege that a football club like Chelsea want a player nearly 34 years old. But I have still the contact with all my coaches. It doesn't mean like when you have the contact with a coach that there is something behind. There was something behind, yes, for sure. But my commitment to the club was straight for it. And when I spoke with the owner of Sunderland, I told him from the beginning, I don't have the feeling that this project is done yet. And this is my motivation. That's why they took me here. And that's why I'm still here to get to the next step. I want to enjoy the European football with this football club, with the fans.

17:11And hopefully we can get more after this season. So a question actually about Xabi Alonso. And also, I've got to say, by the way, I think Mikel Arteta said that he sees you as a manager one day. I do kind of feel like I'm talking to a manager. I don't know if that's an insult or a compliment. That's a compliment. It's a compliment. We'll call it a compliment. But the other side of things, I remember speaking with you after a game against Bayern Munich, I think it was two seasons ago, and you'd had a start to the season where you'd conceded quite a few goals, then against Bayern, I think it was either 1-1 or possibly 0-0.

17:41I think it might have been 1-1. And you said something which is quite American. You said defence wins championships. how does that feel talking about that Leverkusen team compared to Xabi Alonso's side that we've seen in these first few weeks where it seems like the focus is on the attack as opposed to sort of more defensive minded ideas yeah I remember the first game when I went to Leverkusen with Xabi Alonso we played in Real Sociedad in Spain the friendly game and Xabi started back four but the feeling on the pitch was not right so I went to Xabi I said Xabi I think that this team back four we will struggle a lot I say why?

18:21I say I think that we don't have this character players for this back four and he changed and this is for me shows a big big big human being from a coach side because he can tell me listen Granit I'm the coach and I make the decision it's not you but he wanted or he took me as well to Leverkusen because of my experience because of the work what I did in Arsenal with Mikel the small details and yeah After this, everyone knows that we won the league unbeaten. We went to the Europa League final. We won the German Cup after 32 years. After 120 years, we won the league. Even here with Sunderland, why we finished the Sunderland?

19:02Because we didn't concede a lot of goals. If you all see the relegated teams, they all conceded a lot of goals. I think this is the most important thing in the Premier League. as long as you don't consider a lot you will win games

19:16Nedum Onuoha:Coming back to the Premier League has it changed from when you were last in it? Have you noticed big differences? What are physically and mentally the biggest challenges for you on the field? To be honest, it changed in two years when I was in Germany the Premier League changed it was already a little bit starting about the set pieces before I left but I have the feeling that now the set pieces is the key and if I call the step is not just the corner the free kicks it's even the throw-ins now the long throw-ins even Arsenal Premier League winner they put the ball inside if they go for long balls goal kick with Raya they put the ball to the to Harvard they're not trying to play 500 passes like they did before and then it's about to win doesn't matter how you play looks good or not you want to win and this is the most important thing in football you are there for winning not to to show the people how good we are playing but you lose games so physically is it is it when you're on the field now when you come off when i don't know what your average distance is are you feeling physically mentally exhausted both where are the challenges of course physically mentally you have to be ready for this league and if you're not ready don't come here because you get smashed.

20:35That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. So for me, for me, when the owner called me and said, Granit, do you want to come back? I said, Kirill, if I'm not ready, I will not come back. So I knew, I knew how is Premier League because I've been here for seven years. So for me, for my mindset was, Granit, if you're not ready to run and to defend and to fight physical, but as well mental, don't go back because you have no chance.

21:07Just before we talk more about Sunderland this season As you saw Arsenal Assuming that you saw Arsenal Lifted Premier League trophy last season Did you have mixed emotions Or what did you feel watching them Achieve something that you came so close to? First of all I was very very happy for one guy And this is Mikel Arteta Because he's the guy who Who brings me to another level Where I am today And without him 2019 I had no chance to come out on myself and then after I'm more than happy for the players I played with because they deserve all the respect all the work because I know how how much they struggled in the beginning and how much work was behind the scenes to get the trophy where they got in the last season so now the fun part so we will see a Macam in Milan we will see Sunderland playing in Europe and a lot of people from the outside I'm not going to point at Chappers but I might say Chappers' name are sceptical about Sunderland being able to have a good season domestically and in Europe they think it's going to probably be a bit too difficult what do you think the keys will be for Sunderland to be able to build on what happened last season obviously football isn't linear success isn't linear but what do you think will be key from your side to be ready for this season

22:24Nedum Onuoha:just before you answer that Granit can I just say he works in media I am aware of people saying that But I'm not aware of myself. I'm not aware of myself saying that. He's one of those people, Granit. Please answer, Granit, before I kick him. The season will be more difficult than last season? For sure, yes. For sure, yes. Because now the opponents, they will take us serious. Last season, they're thinking, yeah, come on, they'll promote a team. And we go to Sunderland and we take the three points and we go home. Last season, we took 33 points at home. So this is our house. and I always say to the team, nobody comes in the house so easily.

23:03Of course, with Europa League, with all the competitions, what we have, we have 60 games minimum. Are we ready for it? For sure, yes. We have five or six new phases in our team again. The squad is bigger, what we need for the future as well. And you want to finish the seventh again? Of course, if it's possible, yes. But our first goal is to go game by game to stay humble, to work like we did last season. And in the end of the season, let's see where we are.

23:34Nedum Onuoha:But this is the kind of week coming up. This is why you all play the game. It's Arsenal and Europe and Manchester City. Yeah, you have now, you have Arsenal, then you have Europa League, then you have City, then we go to national team. You have every four days, you have a game. And this is the most important thing in football because even if you lose one game, four days later, you can show yourself that you're ready for the next one. You don't need to wait another week like we did last season. So you can say it in both ways. It can be positive, but as well, for sure, it can be negative if you're not ready for it.

24:07Nedum Onuoha:Do you want to be a manager? I mean, Nadem alluded to what Mikel Arteta said about your qualities to do that. Is that the end goal when you eventually stop playing? Yeah, I got my license already with a B and A license. I'm finished. I just need the UEFA Pro, where's the highest coaching badge but I can do this when I'm finished but I spoke with many coaches what I had as well and they say to me stay on the pitch as long as possible because the other part is different What do you think you will relish about being a manager? The tactical side of it Tactical for sure but I think I will be a coach who demands a lot My players need to work they need to run they need to bite if they can and they need to go to the limit Yeah, I'm not coming out of retirement.

25:00But that's fair. I think it's right to say that you should stay in the game for as long as you can. But obviously, people have their different jump-off points and their moments. And to mention now to you, you say you're 34 years of age. Are you excited for another season? Or is it more so just you are being a really good professional and you're preparing for another season? I always say to myself, if the hunger and the desire is gone, I will stop the football tomorrow even if I have another two or three years contract I will stop tomorrow I'm not doing this because I have to be here I'm doing this because I love what I'm doing and the desire the hunger to improve myself to achieve things with this football club with these players is bigger than ever and I never felt so good than I'm feeling at the moment

25:46Nedum Onuoha:That seems a brilliant place to end at Granite Thank you very much for joining us and giving us your time this afternoon Thank you as well guys Go well in this week and for the rest of the season. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. All the best, guys. Thank you. Thank you. That's it. Thank you very much for joining us with the Sunderland legend and Granite Jacket. Correct. Correct. I like that. I like that. Kept that in your back pocket. If you didn't use it, I was going to use it. You're definitely not coming out of retirement to play for him, are you? As soon as he said work hard, it was like, whoa.

26:13Apparently working hard is a skill and then maybe I don't have it anymore.

26:16Nedum Onuoha:I don't remember that from my QPR days. drop us a comment uh below on anything you've heard or you can email us at sportsagents at global.com or our social media handle is at the sports agents all of the past episodes on youtube global player or wherever you get your pods and we'll be back on monday qpr is always such an easy joke to fall back on of course it was a joke no but it was a joke It was a joke of like six years I was there.

26:50This has been a global production.