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We've talked in the past about how Lewis Holtby ditching Tottenham Hotspur for Schalke 04 could help Arsenal to bring in Schalke's Julian Draxler. It looked for a bit like that deal had fallen apart, as Borussia Dortmund appeared to have the advantage, but they balked at Spurs' price and abandoned pursuit. And now!
German Sky Sports News claim that Holtby's move back to Schalke is "in the final stages"...
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) January 29, 2014
Plenty of things, though, have in the past been "in the final stages" and failed to come off. I'm pretty sure our attempt on Gonzalo Higuain, for example, had to have been in the final stages at one point, and he's not here. So that's no guarantee, especially when you have his agent saying things like this:
#Schalke - Holtby-Berater exklusiv zu #SSNHD "wir sind in der finalen Phase, aber ein Weg zurück in die Buli wird schwer zu realisieren!"
— Dirk g. Schlarmann (@Sky_Dirk) January 29, 2014
I can't read German at all, but Friend of the Blog Sam Drew can. Here's his take on that tweet:
And that says: Holtby's agent says "We are in the final phase, but a way back into the Bundesliga will be hard to realise"
— Sam Drew (@sdrewfootball) January 29, 2014
Does that all seem a bit contradictory to you? Because it does to me. Either way this may all be much ado about nothing, as the acquisition of Holtby doesn't necessarily mean anything for Draxler. It could, but there's no confirmation there. So we wait.
