Wolfsburg Looking To Retain Draxler Amidst Interest From The Premier League
Auf dem Platz /w @poldi_official #fun #training #friends #firstneverfollows #jdx pic.twitter.com/GYwfVgimn6
— Julian Draxler. (@Julian_Draxler) June 10, 2016
Wolfsburg will try their best to retain the services of their star midfielder Julian Draxler this summer, the club’s sporting director has revealed.
Julian Draxler is reportedly being linked with several big-money moves to Premier League giants Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United.
But with Liverpool signing Sadio Mane for what could be a club record fee of £38 million, and United luring Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund, the Gunners are very likely the sole candidates from England in the race to sign the German international.
According to ESPN, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has made an offer which is believed to be over £40 million for the 22-year-old. In fact, Draxler was also targeted by Wenger last summer, but the midfielder opted on joining Wolfsburg for £25.5 million instead, and is currently contracted with the club until June 2020.
He had explained his decision to join Wolfsburg in an interview with Bild last summer, where he was quoted as saying: “From the outside, maybe my move isn’t understandable. Schalke are a great club in Germany. Many people thought that if I left it would be for a top foreign club. But I decided not to go abroad as I didn’t feel ready for that kind of move.”
Since the transfer, Draxler has managed to display numerous top-drawer performances, scoring ten goals for the Bundesliga outfit last season, and getting called up to represent the German national team in the Euro 2016 tournament in the process.
And amidst all this speculation surrounding Draxler’s future at the moment, Wolfsburg’s sporting director Klaus Allofs has revealed that the club will try their best to retain the youngster’s services, despite his aspirations to play for a bigger club at some point in his career.
“It is clear that Wolfsburg is not the end of his dreams – neither was Schalke,” said Allofs in an interview with Sport Bild. “There are clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or one or other club from England. But Julian knows exactly how the contractual situation is. He has a long-term contract with us. We plan to stick with it!”