Gossip: Sanchez, Martins Indi, Allardyce
A new contract for Alexis Sanchez, Sam Allardyce to take over from Dick Advocaat (like we all thought), Bruno Martins Indi to ‘replace’ Luke Shaw…
NEW CONTRACT FOR SANCHEZ
It seems to make an awful lot of sense for Arsenal to sit Alexis Sanchez down and ask him just how much money he wants. He’s their best player and they have £193m in the bank. Maybe stop short of giving him the majority, but a few gold coins seems reasonable.
The Daily Mirror’s Steve Stammers reports that Arsenal will hand Sanchez a five-year deal worth £130,000 per week. We’re a little worried that John Cross hasn’t got this story, to be honest.
Sanchez suffered a slow start to the season (he’s knackered), but scored a hat-trick against Leicester last week. That prompted Claudio Ranieri to say something beautiful about him: “He was born with the ball”. Purr.
ALLARDYCE TO SUNDERLAND
Can Sam Allardyce please just hurry up and become Sunderland’s manager so we can stop saying “When will Sam Allardyce finally manage Sunderland?”
With Dick Advocaat refusing to confirm that he will stay or go, everyone has understandably translated that message as proof that he will be heading back off into retirement soon. It’s difficult to blame him.
That leaves a Sam Allardyce-shaped hole (don’t), with the Sunday Times reporting that he will take over pretty sharpish after Advocaat leaves.
MARTINS INDI TO UNITED
This one’s from Portuguese publication O Jogo via the Daily Express. They claim that Louis van Gaal has been scouting Porto defender Bruno Martins Indi.
The Express say that Martins Indi will be a replacement for Luke Shaw, ruled out through injury for the next five months at least.
Couple of things:
1) Why do you need to replace someone who might be back in March with someone who you can’t buy until January?
2) If you’re going to replace Luke Shaw, wouldn’t you buy a player who is a natural left-back rather than a centre-back who can play there? United have enough of those.
