Arsenal could get a win out of losing Alexis Sanchez yet.
With Manchester City coasting in the Premier League, and Sanchez available for free in the summer, it looked as though the Chilean would be staying in London until the end of the season. We are in the middle of the final transfer where the Gunners have any bargaining power, though, so Sanchez may yet up sticks.
City remain favourites to get the 29-year-old but there has been late, and firm, interest from Manchester United. United have reportedly bid £25m to get Sanchez in now, £5m more than City are willing to pay. Arsenal may be willing to admit defeat on keeping Sanchez and their latest move, according to The Daily Star, makes a whole lot of sense from their perspective, – a swap deal.
Arsenal are reportedly looking for French attacker Anthony Martial in exchange for Sanchez and it is a sensible ploy. Arsene Wenger is a fan of the 21-year-old and one could see Martial easily slipping into the Arsenal team. For United, though, the trade is nowhere near as tempting. Martial has found form again this season and could yet set Old Trafford alight for the next decade.
We can’t blame Arsenal for trying, but one suspects United may offer the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan instead, or insist on a cash only deal.
At a press conference to preview Monday’s Premier League encounter with Stoke, United boss Jose Mourinho was asked about a possible Sanchez deal. He replied:
“I don’t know if it’s ethical or correct… to be speaking about players of other clubs. If somebody speaks of one of my players to tell we are interested or we are not interested, I wouldn’t be very, very happy. Sanchez is an Arsenal player, I don’t know but probably this weekend he is going to defend Arsenal colours so I don’t think it’s correct to say things about Alexis Sanchez. At the general level what I can say is myself and the Manchester United board, the owners, we don’t believe a lot in the January market, we don’t believe in signing a player just to sign a player, just to do something, we don’t believe in that.”
Mourinho did note that Sanchez was a “phenomenal” player and very few would argue with that.
