“I am delighted that we have him on board for the second half of the season but, because of his clause, he can leave when a club puts the money on the table. That’s why I can’t plan with him, because it is just not in my or our hands.
“It’s a god awful situation when, as the coach, you don’t know whether such an important player will move on, but Julian was injured at that time, so at least my unrest did not necessarily affect the other players.
“[on having a back up plan] It would have been bad if we didn’t have one. When you have to replace a player like Julian, you had better be prepared. He’s young, but has made over 100 competitive appearances for Schalke.
"Others don’t achieve that in five, six years. That’s why he is very experienced already, and has shown his superior qualities often enough, although his youth shows in his consistency."
“It’s clear that all the talk about his 45.5m release clause and the interest from top European clubs leaves its mark on such a young lad. The hype around him last summer was huge. He must learn to cope with that, and also that failing to perform at less than 100% is not good enough for him.”
With Jens' statement, it means Arsenal could still have Julian Draxler in the summer transfer window if Arsene Wenger still wants him. This simply means that the right fee must be put on the table to trigger his release clause. I do hope we act fast before what happened to us while we were in the pursuit for Juan Mata and Eden Hazard repeats itself.
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