The Henrikh Mkhitaryan Transfer Saga

As far as transfer/extension sagas go, Miki's has been a ridiculously frustrating affair.

I mean, Mino Raiola is his agent - and that guy is not known for making things easy. But even by Raiola standards, this is ridiculous.

Here's a quick timeline:

30th March

Raiola talked about how Juve and Arsenal are interested in Miki, but Miki isn't interested in going to either place (source: dimarzio).

I guess Raiola only made the offer public to force the club to give Miki a better offer. A sort of "Look, Miki has better options."

Meanwhile, the club offered Miki a new contract. According to unsubstantiated rumors, the contract was until 2020 and for around 6-7 million Euros.

25th April

Watzke said "I don't think all three (Mats, Ilkay, Miki) will play for us next season, but there's no way none of them will." (source: derwesten)

Welp. Mats and Ilkay are gone, and Raiola is... well.

9th May

Raiola suddenly wants a release clause! (source: RN)

I guess he didn't get the memo that the club doesn't do release clauses anymore.

12th May

The club says there will be a decision in ten days. (source: transfermarkt)

It's been twelve days since...

19th May

Raiola "Miki could leave because the club isn't including a buyout clause." (source: BILD)

The source is BILD and this was right before the cup final, so this should be taken with a grain (or more) of salt.

20th May

Watzke "The discussion is going in a completely diffrent direction. But I said that for sure won’t lose three players this season. And the fact that he has a contract till 2017 is also often forgotten. And that’s why I'm relaxed about this. We still hope he will extend his contract- we have to wait. But we do know who we want to sign." (source: derwesten)

22nd May

Raiola now wants two clauses in Miki's new contract. One so that Miki can leave to any of the top clubs if they want him. The second will be activated if Thomas Tuchel ever leaves the club or is fired. (source: Kicker)

Eh? Where does Raiola come up with these things?

Also Raiola: Chelsea, Arsenal and Juventus are interested.

Didn't he just tell Arsenal and Juventus to f*** off a month ago?

Meanwhile, RN seems confident that he'll extend.

So yeah, at this point I have no idea what's going on, and neither does anyone else. Raiola seems to be playing the game really well. (Either that or he's just being annoying for the sake of being annoying.)

I really hope Miki will extend - he's a brilliant boy and he's definitely been player of the season for us.