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21st Jun 2016

Neil Lennon offers a pretty damning comparison of Arsenal newboy Granit Xhaka

Arsenal fans won't be happy with this

Robert Redmond

Arsenal fans won’t like this.

Granit Xhaka signed for Arsenal before Euro 2016, costing the Gunners around £30m from Borussia Monchengladbach and since then Gunners haven’t stopped fawning over his performances at this summer’s tournament in France.

The Swiss midfielder is technically gifted with a cultured left-foot – so an archetypal Arsenal player. But he is also fond of a tackle, and many feel he will provide some much needed steel to Arsenal’s engine-room.

And after putting in two man-of-the-match performances in his first two games for Switzerland in Group A, Arsenal fans are understandably excited.

However, Neil Lennon isn’t convinced and following Switzerland’s goalless draw with France made a rather unflattering comparison between the 23-year-old and a certain Stoke City and Scotland midfielder.

Romania v Switzerland - Group A: UEFA Euro 2016

On BBC Radio 5 Live, Lennon said:

“I’ve not been that impressed. He [Xhaka] is all right. He reminds me of Charlie Adam.”

Adam has a had a decent career by any metric, but he’s not exactly going to be top of Arsenal’s transfer list.

Danny Murphy was another ex-pro to have his say on Xhaka. However, the Switzerland v France game may be one of the first times the BBC co-commentator has watched the midfielder.