FC Schalke 04 chairman Clemens Tonnies hopes the club’s highly-rated No. 10 Julian Draxler will stay in Gelsenkirchen for ‘another year or two.’
Draxler, whose current contract at the Veltins-Arena expires in the summer of 2018, is free to leave Schalke for €45.5 million in the summer, with Sky Bet backing Arsenal to sign the midfielder before 1 September 2014 at 1/3.
Manchester United are next favourites at 9/2, while Bayern are backed at 6/1. However, Tonnies does not expect the Germany international to follow in the footsteps of Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski and leave North Rhine-Westphalia for Munich.
“It would do Draxler good to spend another year or two with us,” Tonnies told reporters at the SpoBiS exhibition.
“But we know we’re not going to be able to keep a super-talented player like Julian at Schalke forever.
“If another club comes in for him, then we cannot block them. That would be unfair.
“I don’t think he wants to join Bayern Munich, though.”
Draxler, who became the youngest ever player to make 100 appearances in the Bundesliga last year, has tallied four goals and six assists in 21 appearances in all competitions for Die Königsblauen this season.
Schalke 04 (8/15); Hannover 96 (5/1); Draw (3/1)
In other news, Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski has revealed that compatriot Wojciech Szczesny tried to convince him to join English Premier League side Arsenal.
Lewandowski, 25, is set to leave Dortmund at the end of the season, having already put pen to paper on a pre-contract agreement with Bayern Munich.
“I can confirm that Wojciech Szczesny tried to convince me to join Arsenal,” Lewandowski told Polish daily newspaper Fakt.
“We had several talks about this. It was him who did most of the talking, how the club looks inside, what Arsene Wenger thinks of me.
“When we trained before the Champions League games at Colney, there were important people from Arsenal at our sessions as well.”
Despite finally sorting out his long-term future, the 25-year-old Poland international is fully focused on Dortmund for the rest of the 2013/14 campaign, and rightfully so.
Lewandowski added: “Straight after signing the deal with Bayern, I released the statement where I committed myself to Borussia for the final six months.
“I’m not thinking about all this, and what will happen, it’s not the right time.”
Only Hertha Berlin forward Adrián Ramos has scored more league goals (12) than Lewandowski (11) in the Bundesliga this term.
Bayern Munich striker Mario Mandzukic, who is being linked with a summer exit from the Allianz Arena due to the arrival of the aforementioned Lewandowski, and Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have also netted 11 league goals in 2013/14.
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