Wenger: Sanchez’s Champions League demand a mistranslation

Matt Stead

Arsene Wenger has warned not to “give too much importance to things that are translated” after insisting Arsenal will keep Alexis Sanchez.

Sanchez has one year remaining on his contract at the Emirates Stadium, with Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain both thought to be monitoring the situation.

Wenger however is adamant that he will not sell the player, and negotiations over a new deal continue.

Sanchez was quoted at the weekend as telling Chilean media that he wishes to play for a club in the Champions League, but Wenger says the forward did not mean that.

“The decision has been made and we will stick to that. The decision is not to sell,” Wenger said at a media conference in Shanghai on Tuesday.

“I do not give too much importance to things that are translated. The whole interview that I got didn’t really mean that.

“We have played for 20 years in the Champions League. That’s 17 years before Sanchez arrived and three years with him. So he can get us back in there.

“When you play in the Champions League, everyone says: ‘Is that all you do?’ Suddenly when you don’t play in there it becomes a major problem.

“At the end of the season, only one team can win the Champions League.

“For us the main focus is the Premier League, and the Premier League for me these days is more important than the Champions League.

“We have rested sometimes players in the group stage of the Champions League for the Premier League so it has become most important for us.”