Good morning, Free Agents, and welcome to the The Free Transfer— your daily 5-minute football newsletter.

It’s Friday. You know what that means.

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What we’ve got for today:

• Sheffield Wednesday complete 4-goal comeback in 10-goal thriller, to punch their ticket for playoff final at Wembley 🤯💥 

• Roma vs. Sevilla; Fiorentina vs. West Ham in Europa finals ⚔️ 🏆️

• Granit Xhaka to leave Arsenal this summer: full circle 😡→😇 

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY COMPLETE CRAZY COMEBACK 🤯

Seriously, this has to go down as on of the top five comebacks of all time.

We’re talking the same tier as Watford-Leicester Troy Deeney winner. A “corner taken quickly…. ORIGI!!!” type of comeback. Check this out. ⤵️ 

Setting the scene 😬 

• Sheffield Wednesday lost the first leg of the League One Playoff semifianl 4-0 to Peterborough last Friday.

• It didn’t look good for the Owls, and some fans took to social media to take a load off… 🙈 👇️ 

• Despite the poor first-leg result, Wednesday fans packed the house to cheer on the lads for the second leg.

• Winner of the tie would advance to play Bolton/Barnsley at Wembley in the playoff final, for promotion to the Championship (England’s second division).

How it happened 🎥 

• An early penalty in Wednesday’s favor gave them a 1-0 lead (1-4 down on aggregate) in the 9’— and some hope.

• 15 minutes later at the 25’, Wednesday knocked in another goal to make it 2-0 (2-4 aggregate). But wait, there’s more.

• In the 71’ Wednesday squeaked in a third to make it 3-4 on aggregate with 20 minutes to go!

• Hope was fading as extra time wound down… into the 90+8’ when this happened:

• In extra time, the two teams exchanged blows, making it 5-5 and sending it to penalties.

• From there, the rest is truly history:

To set the scene for you a bit more, here is the full stadium on the field singing with the team and staff. Unmatched scenes.

EUROPA & CONFERENCE LEAGUE FINALS SET ⚔️ 🏆️ 

Roma 🐺 vs. Sevilla 🔴 ⚪️ 

• Roma won their tie vs. Bayer Leverkeusen in vintage Mourinho fashion— going up 1-0 in the home fixture, and drawing 0-0 in the away leg.

• Sevilla KO’d Juventus with a 2-1 home win last night. It took an extra time goal from Erik Lamela to send Juve packing. 3-2 aggregate.

• That sets up a very traditional storyline for the final:

  • Mourinho has never lost a European final. 🛡️ 

  • Sevilla have won 6 Europa League titles, with 4 in the past 9 years. 👑 

West Ham ⚒️ vs. Fiorentina 🟣 ⚪️ 

• After knocking out AZ Alkmaar and Basel respectively, West Ham & Fiorentina will face off in the Europa Conference League final for a ticket to next season’s Europa League.

• Both of these historic clubs have made it to their first European finals in decades.

XHAKA TO LEAVE ARSENAL 🔴⚪️→🔴⚫️ 

From zero to hero— a symbol of Arsenal’s renaissance 🙌 

How it started 😡 

• Signed in the summer of 2016 from Borussia Mönchengladbach for a fee in the realm of £35MM, there were high expectations for Xhaka at Arsenal.

• Early criticism came as Arsene Wenger played him as a lone #6, which did not suit his qualities. Comparisons to Kante started early in the season, who was bought by Chelsea the same summer & quickly became the best #6 in the world.

• Often cut as a frustrated figure, Xhaka earned a reputation of accumulating yellow and even red cards fairly frequently.

• He was named captain by Unai Emery in the summer of 2019, but was subsequently stripped of said captaincy after a confrontation with the crowd when substituted after a poor match just days before Emery’s sacking.

How it ended 😇

• It looked over between Arsenal and Xhaka, until Arteta was appointed in December 2019. Xhaka seemed sure to leave for Union Berlin in the winter window until Arteta convinced him to stay.

• From there, he has been the cornerstone that Arteta built his Arsenal project on.

• He got back to his best in the “deep-lying playmaker” role over the past few years— his true position that he played for Gladbach & Switzerland.

• This season he has stepped up his game even further— taking on a more advanced role, scoring goals, & being more involved in the team’s attack than ever.

• Although he never fully regained his captaincy, he has been a defacto captain for the past 3 years, which is clear if you watch Arsenal’s matches. It will be hard to replace his combination of play and character.

• He is the perfect example of a player who turned things around, and left the club in a better state than when he arrived. Arsenal fans will hope that whoever replaces him can have a similar effect.

Where to next? 🔴⚫️ 

• It is reported that Xhaka is close to joining Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkeusen for a fee in the region of €15MM.

That’s all for today. Happy Friday. Share the love with your friends to earn free money 👇️ 💰️ 

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• And once you reach 25 referrals, you get $20 more 

• Use the link below to share with your friends!💸 ⤵️

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