Sanchez to Man United latest: One match changed his mind
Alexis Sanchez is expected to complete his move to Manchester United soon. Let’s hope so, because Arsenal players are not the only ones becoming ‘weary’.
Arsene Wenger stated on Thursday morning that the deal could be done within 24 to 48 hours, with only the formalities of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s move to north London stalling proceedings.
According to some reports on Thursday, the Gunners want an extra £10m on top of the proposed swap deal for Sanchez and Mkhitaryan.
But what is being reported on Friday? Plenty, actually. And we have it all here.
DAILY MAIL: Mike Keegan has an extensive piece detailing ‘how Man United snatched Sanchez from City’s grasp’. He explains that City were almost certain to sign the Chilean until his representatives caught ‘a whiff of interest from across town’. At that point, ‘they started issuing demands’. City saw the figures involved, thought twice, and then agent Fernando Felicevich ‘began to grate’.
The reasons for City dropping out of the race are simple. They knew offering Sanchez such a massive wage could annoy Kevin de Bruyne and others. Also, ‘the feeling that this was not the right move for the club’. Weird that they pursued him for so long then.
Keegan then drops in a scathing couple of paragraphs: ‘
‘While they would never say it in public, there was also a feeling that, far from leaving them with egg on their faces, United’s swoop will serve only to underline what some see as a scattergun transfer policy since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘It used to be City chasing their tails trying to catch up with their neighbours. Now it would appear to be the other way around.’
Miaow.
DAILY STAR: David Woods uses his extensive Arsenal contacts to declare which match ‘made Sanchez quit’. The claim is that he had actually agreed to sign a new Arsenal contract in February of last year, and one source even claims he shook hands on the deal with Wenger. But then something happened that changed his mind drastically.
That something was to get tw*tted by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Sanchez equalised for Arsenal in the Allianz Arena 11 months ago, but the Gunners fell to a 5-1 defeat against the Bundesliga champions.
This defeat helped Sanchez realise Arsenal ‘were not one of the great sides in Europe and nor were they going to be’. His ‘happy-go-lucky persona’ was gone, his mood was ‘considerably’ worse, and ‘he became surly and petulant in training and matches’. He was dropped in a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in the next Premier League game.
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS: Samuel Luckhurst concedes that Sanchez ‘was not always the ideal acquisition’. Mourinho wanted Antoine Griezmann (unavailable), Neymar (unattainable), Gareth Bale (injury-prone) or even Mesut Ozil. Each would be difficult to sign, and so Sanchez is the solution.
Luckhurst says that, after seven games this season, Mourinho ‘expressed concerns about a supposed lack of creativity’. United’s seventh game in all competitions was a 4-0 win over Everton; their seventh in the Premier League was a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace. Weird.
Luckhurst also praises Ed Woodward. Justice for that man.
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