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12th Jan 2017

Arsenal fans unveil banner for Alexis Sánchez’s dogs… and not everyone sees the funny side

'We're supposed to be a serious football club, not Banter FC'.

Simon Lloyd

Not for the first time in recent years, Arsenal fans are growing increasingly concerned about the futures of a couple of key players.

With contract talks with Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez showing no signs of reaching a breakthrough, there’s a growing feeling that one (or maybe both) of them may leave the club in the months ahead.

Özil claims he’s waiting for word on the future of Arsene Wenger, whereas Sánchez isn’t saying that much at all. That, coupled with the Chilean’s reaction to the full-time whistle at Bournemouth last week, has made some Gooners particularly nervous.

In their minds, it’s only a matter of time before he starts saying how much he misses Barcelona, or has great admiration for the ‘project’ that’s taking shape at Guangzhou Evergrande. Worse still, he might start taking advice from a little boy that lives inside him and develop an urge to move to Old Trafford.

But perhaps Arsenal supporters shouldn’t worry too much. Yeah, Sánchez might be able to get a higher wage packet elsewhere, but would another club’s supporters be able to offer him a banner in honour of his dogs? Absolutely not.

As we told you last month, Arsenal fans were plotting a banner based on the attacking midfielder’s beloved golden retrievers, Atom and Humber. Weeks on, we can now confirm that the banner is just days away from being unveiled at the Emirates.

REDaction Gooners, who insist that this is just a bit of fun and is not an attempt to make Sánchez ink a new contract, posted details of the banner on Twitter on Wednesday night.

And of course, some Arsenal supporters didn’t see the funny side.

Lovely stuff.

The banner should be in place in time for Arsenal’s meeting with Burnley on January 22.