Erik ten Hag is fighting a losing struggle to retain the core of his Bayer Leverkusen team, only a few weeks after the job is hired.
And now he has closed the door of an important player who completes his desired Premier League movement in an attempt to stop the Exodus.
The former boss of Manchester United has already lost three crucial gears in Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Jonathan Tah.
It threatens to be in a nightmare summer after Leverkusen, which won an unbeaten domestic Double in 2023-24 under Xabi Alonso, lost ten Hag's first friendly 5-1 of flamengos under 20s.
And so the Dutchman laid down the law on Granit Xhaka, who reportedly led over a move to Sunderland, according to athletics.
Xhaka, 32, Arsenal left two years ago, but was almost the completion of a switch to the New Compety Newcomers of the Premier League, even reportedly agreed personal conditions.
But ten Hag has now hit back through Bild: 'His agent can say what he wants, but this club has already let three important players go, and we will not let anything go anymore.
'Granit is a leader, he has three years left on his contract.
'It is clear – Granit is an important player, he has signed here for five years and has left on his contract for three years.
“He is too important for us to let him go.”
It is not much clearer than that and it is currently unknown how Xhaka has responded to the statement.
If you were to stay in Leverkusen, he would enable it to participate in the Champions League and perhaps a challenge for silverware after they had a distant second on Bayern Munich last season.
After losing Wirtz and Frimpong to Liverpool, Tah to Bayern, and indeed Alonso of the Real Madrid Dugout, Leverkusen are experienced a change in the guard who could see a period of transition.
According to athletics, Xhaka has asked his employers to quickly find a solution to have him added to Sunderland.
The potential movement is a somewhat an eyebrow-raiser, given the importance of Xhaka for a club that competes in both own country and in the Champions League.
He dealt with the second place of each player in the Bundesliga in his debut season and had the second best pass completion rate of the competition.
However, it is also seen as a sign of the ambition on the part of Regis Le Bris, who are already splashing on Simon Adingra (£ 21 million), Habib Diarra (£ 30 million) and Enzo Le Fee (£ 20m).
They want to break the pattern of promoted teams that are banned from asking in the first time, after they won the play-offs in the championship last season.
All six of the promoted teams in the past two seasons immediately went down again.
Xhaka, who often plays in a deeper role in midfield, has so far played 99 times for Leverkusen in two years after he had spent seven in Arsenal.
Perhaps his most striking moment as Gunners player was when he was chased away by fans in the Emirates while he took them. He took his shirt and walked straight through the tunnel and was stripped of his role as a captain.
However, that was under Unai Emery. Xhaka and the fans rebuilt their relationship under Mikel Arteta and he left for good conditions.
In the Stadium of Light he was able to fill a void that had been left by Jobe Bellingham, who left the club earlier in the summer for £ 32 million.
The will of Reinildo, Noah Sadiki and Chemsdine Talbi have also become a member of Sunderland.