According to the Independent, Manchester City will make an offer for Alexis Sanchez before the transfer window closes on 31 August.
Despite receiving encouragement from Sanchez’s camp when the striker was sounded out about a move earlier in the summer, no official offer from City has yet been lodged.
It’s suggested that Pep Guardiola felt confident of getting his man for around £40 million because the player was entering the final year of his contract, however, with Arsenal repeatedly reiterating their refusal to sell they’ve instead bided their time.
While Arsene Wenger has been emboldened by his ability to ward off interest from Bayern Munich and PSG there remains the outside chance of the board pushing for a sale in light of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mesut Ozil, two other high-value, out of contract players, also being able to leave for free next year. It’s something the boss alluded to recently.
The report claims that City aren’t particularly confident of signing Sanchez because the tipping point for the Gunners would only be reached if a bid exceeded £70 million.
Tell ’em to pessimistic off
This Alexis Saga is really pessimistic me off.
Ha – me too. If we are keeping Sanchez then we have to go absolutely balls out for the Premier League title this season. Arsene references poker all the time, so its all-in time, get our chips in the middle time. No more wussing around with the smaller pots. Its go big or go broke now. He has to spend the money on getting one or two quality additions in before the window closes, otherwise when we’ve finished 5th or 6th, we will also have the pleasure of watching Sanchez leaving on a free to join City next summer and… Read more »
Will you sell us Sanchez?
Next question.
Crude oil. Plastic club.
Talk about an overload of players. How many do they want?
£70M?? If they offer that I’d piss myself.
I’d be half tempted to take that £70m and stick it all on Lemar/Draxler and Seri. We can get someone in who is not far off Sanchez’s ability, with potential to be as good, who is younger and less of a prima donna plus someone else to toughen us up in the middle. I do really like Sanchez and would much rather he stayed and signed a new deal but he is 29 now and will surely burn out given the amount of football he has played. We need to have a more solid spine to the team and if… Read more »
Seri is already gone I thought.
Nope. Played for Nice in Cup qualifications, so Barca likely is out as he can’t play CL games now. That’s how I understand it anyway
Wholeheartedly agree with all of this
If Sanchez and Ox go and we get Draxler and Benzema in, I think we’d be stronger.
I’ve lost every respect I had for Pep. At Barca and Bayern he coached by far the best teams in their leagues at that time and now, when he faces some competition for the first time, he tries to buy half Europe. It’s ridiculous to call him a top coach. With that squad my granny would win the championship.
I totally agree. Certainly helps having the world’s best players at your disposal in their prime!
I ve been saying that for as long as I can remenber, he only managed teams that didnt have to do much to win a title but we will see how he can manage a League where top4 is not even a guarantee for the most powerfull teams
Being the very best isn’t just about winning championships. It’s the style in which it’s done. His Bayern team was great to watch and his challenge at city is to top that.
His Bayern team was awful to watch. Ask the Bayern fans and board. It was much better under Heynckes.
His City team is a lot more exciting though as they are more direct.
Actually, no. Pep’s Bayern were not fun to watch. Ask any Bayern fan, but as someone who follows German football I’m convinced his primary tactic was to hog possession and bore the opposition into lapses of concentration from which to take advantage.
Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern were far more exciting.
And therein lies the reason for targeting Sanchez. It imbalances the contest within the league. It has to be their priority in the short-term. It’d likely win them the league- or close. And we’d be all at sea, at least on paper. Liverpool and Spurs aren’t close, they’ll struggle with European football and the various pressures and imbalances that come with not being as moneyed. People laugh at Walker’s fee- but it was a very deliberate move. It’s two birds with one stone. At his previous clubs he’s enjoyed comfortable advantage over all but one other rival club. Two at… Read more »
You honestly believe pep sees arsenal as a title threat?
It’s not a matter of one team being a title threat in a league that is based on a table and points. Even if Arsenal is not viewed as a title contender (which they are because they are a perennial top 4/5 team with immense talent), that doesn’t mean they can’t still be damaging to a team like Man City who faces them twice. Title threat or not, Man City has a higher chance of dropping points against us when Alexis is on the pitch wearing red.
Do you think Bayern see Hoffenheim as a title threat because they buy Rudy and Süle?
Point isn’t flattering to Arsenal in any way. There is nothing special about wanting our best players. If they can make a team that they have to play at least twice shitter while making themselves better, then they will and have.
Stones from Eve, Sterling from Liv, Walker from Spurs, Tevez from Utd, multiple Arsenal players. And if you think Chelsea got off then you can ask their fans how they feel about how KDB turned out.
As a club, Arsenal definitely have the talent to challenge for the title. All we need is the consistency and some more character from our team.
Why not? Wenger may have lost the plot,but Arsenal is ever a threat in the Premier League.
Spot on. You hit the nail on the head.
Are you having this opinion on Arsene’s title winning team, Zidane’s Real Madrid, Allegri’s Juventus or any other manager when they have team full of star players and win trophies? Most of them, when the academy doesn’t have one in a generation talents, buy talents from across Europe.
Allegris Juve and Arsenal NEVER spent similar amounts on transfers. So these comparisons are nonsense. And regarding Real, yes, I find them annoying as well. But at least Real is the biggest club on the planet and have won things before they have started to pay hundrets if millions on transfers. That makes them slightly less annoying than City imo.
Juve spends enough to be better than anyone else in Italy, especially including taking top talent from domestic rivals (recently, Roma), but it does not want to completely overwhelm the domestic wage structure. Bayern does the same in Germany. That’s not possible in the Prem.
not sure about that, their defence still sucks even though they’ve spent a bazillion on defenders.
Man U look scary this year sadly although they’ve played crap teams.
We seem lost, remember when we started the transfer window with a bang! Was that just to get the season ticket people to renew?
I think you are right, I had more confidence this time last year even after we had been beaten by Liverpool. We are too soft, we are so weak mentally that we are always prone to a big loss. This never used to happen but now we are becoming known as a team that is prone to have complete mental breakdowns and ship a ton of goals in a game. The only funny thing about this is our defending, which we cant seem to get right. I love Wenger, but I love this club a whole lot more. I fear… Read more »
He did that at Barca too when he benched half a billion euros worth of top quality players for an entire season. Ibrahimovic being one of them has expressed his disbelief that a manager who effectively wasted that amount of money still works in football.
A funny anecdote relating to it is when Ibrahimovic threatened to beat him up if he didn’t sell him on.
Don’t discredit the man because he’s a rival coach. You don’t win what he has won by being mediocre. Pep’s only problem is that his football ideals isn’t suited to the EPL. It is the same affliction of ideals that Wenger suffers.
I think we need to include Mourinho, the $o called “$pecial One” who take$ over team$ and $pend$ a$ much a$ he can $o he can $ay how $pecial he i$. Of cour$e the “$pecial One” i$ pure bull$hit. I really really hate that arrogant ba$tard, and after Arsenal, want any other team to win the BPL than the one he coache$.
I cannot stand that bloke, He is the most narcissistic person I have ever listened to and the media lap it up. But I have to say, he is a very good manager.
50 mil for Kyle walker and 70 mil for Alexis! Fuck right off
Or worse, 50 for Walker and 40 for Alexis. That’s an insult.
we need to Seri _ Lemar _ Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain_ Lacazette _ sanchez and top class players.
Wenger: We’re alert every day of the transfer window>>>29july
Seriously,why doesn’t Arseblog ban this troll?Hes obviously trolling,I’m all for people expressing their opinion no matter how unpopular or how “wrong” it may seem,but this guy is definitely a troll and should be banned.
Your username says where you belong
Poor City. The heart bleeds. The owners will just pump a few more barrels of the black gold and hey presto they’ll get their man. It’s not as if they will have to do anything nasty like, you know, finding a way for their fans to pay for it. Much like their stadium move. No doubt serial lottery winner Guardiola will find a way to present it as City being in some way the victim.
Sell him.. sell the Ox to Chelsea and get Costa in from them.. same thought I had shared earlier.. but we should probably be doing it..
Use the money to get a defensive mid and even a defender..
there is no point in keeping hold of all the players who want to leave for free next season. No point at all..
I seriously hope to never see Costa in an arsenal shirt!
I would NEVER want to see Costa the Psycho in an Arsenal jersey! Not even if I was paid to do so.
When they bash Özil, I hope the fans don’t forget that Sanchez has nothing against leaving…
Are they suggesting £70,000,001 is the magic number?
At this point, if we could sell Walcott, Perez and Alexis for £100mill? and sign Draxler and Lemar for £100mill on 5yr deals and less wages? I’d be inclined to just move on.
This whole will they? Won’t they saga? Is like a really depressing drawn out episode of Emerdale.
You’ve somehow becoming emotionally invested in a few of the characters, but you know it’s going to end badly as you’ve somehow seen the script before.
we will never get lemar , forget about it monaco isnt selling anymore this summer, if they were, Mbappe would have long gone for 100+. but they told PSG to fuck off,same with fabinho,next summer probably
I don’t see how Wenger can possibly save face if we end up selling Sanchez, which increasingly I think we will if a 70m bid does come. I also don’t see how we can make the top 4 without Sanchez either. At this point replacing him would also cost us pretty much the entire fee for an inferior player (with huge potential hopefully) as it’s late and everyone would know we’re desperate.
Mate, I dont think AW cares much for saving face anymore. He has no long term plan, other than to seek out a contract extension.
TBH I am a little amazed that he’s seemingly gone right back to what he’s been doing for so long following last season. We’re shoehorning the Ox into the team – to the detriment of the team – to convince a decent but not great player to stay who repeatedly has told Wenger he wants to leave (and who we could get a major fee for owing solely to the fact that he’s English). We’re already talking about how we don’t need a new CM for what has been a disaster area for several years now b/c Jack & Santi… Read more »
Sell Sanchez now and use that money to buy Draxler.
We can afford to sign Draxler without sellin Alexis
This!! If we want to challenge we need alexis AND probably another attacker (Lemar/Draxler) and a midfielder. Its guys like Jack, Gibbsy, Walcott, Perez, that need to go not our best bloody players. We need to improve the quality of the squad. And if we want any chance of hanging onto Alexis/Ozil we aren’t going to get it done with the current squad…quality brings quality…sadly I am at about 95% confidence we bring no new players in and we get another season of mediocrity and pathetic ambition.
I concur. Why let him join City anyway next season, for free?! Sell him and buy Lemar and Draxler. Sell him, but not to City. PSG, Monaco, anywhere outside the EPL.
Yeah but you know if we sell him we won’t buy Draxler or Lemar, it will be a week of talking up Iwobi and Nelson and we’ll sign a last ditch alternate option like a Perez 2.0 that won’t get played and Kroenke, Wenger and the board get to roll around in some more money. I’d rather another year of Alexis than that…I really don’t give a $hit about the transfer money coming in anymore as it is not being put to use in helping the squad anyway. You can’t tell me Arsenal do not have enough money to pull… Read more »
Pep Guardiola inherited the most talented team at Barcelona and still bought a lot of players to make that team even better. He then went to Bayern and assembled another super star team mostly by buying a lot of players. He raided the best players of Bayern’s closest rivals Dortmund and made then weaker at the same time. At Manchester City now he is again assembling a super star team by spending mammoth amounts of money. It is unbelievable that with the amount of offensive players they have, they would still want to buy Alexis Sanchez. One wonders why Pep… Read more »
They are already stacked with forwards , what would they need sanchez for. Ah Ambition i see. If it happens we sell sanchez that would exactly show what the clubs vision is. There are players out there who are better than ours and can be added , but cant see anyone close to sanchez talent and workrate.
These are big if’s BUT –
IF city offered 70 million and the 70 million was reinvested in Draxler & Seri then I would probably take it. But you know Arsenal are terrible at this transfer and contract stuff…
The only way we should sanction a deal with City is to have Aguero coming the other way. We have more than enough money; we need top class players.
I’m not sure what ‘top class’ constitutes. Personally I wouldn’t have Aguero, his hamstrings & our medical teams history is a recipe for disaster.
I actually don’t think we need ‘names’. We seem to always do better with players who are a little under the radar or who are perhaps just below the top level and can then flourish and reach and surpass it (sort of like Henry did). I kind of think Draxler and Seri represent this, players just about to become big names.
Wenger would coach his goalscoring instincts out of him anyway and have him just pass, pass, pass, then lose it and whoever we played against would score on a counter attack.
U can’t sell a player like him to a rival team,, look what van p did to us won man u the league
Why would you invest in young players like Gabigol, Bernardo, Sane and Sterling, only to block their path with an ageing star?
Because Alexis is currently a much better and more effective option for the next two seasons at least.
City want trophies.
Being pedantic but Gabriel Jesus isn’t Gabigol
Why not? lol Isn’t that what he did at Barca? BM? if you had unlimited budget wouldn’t you do that too?
wenger should take the 70mil, any other manager would, but he wont because without him we would finish mid table, but with him we will finish 5th 6th.
Cant sell to a rival end of ! 80million from abroad we could deal with maybe. But not this type of nonsense alot of fans are still getting over the van parcel head move to untied which won them the title, cant give city our most dynamic player and last years top goal getter no time for a replacment and its just sick to think of.
I’d take 40m from abroad…. I don’t want players that don’t want to play for the club. I’d definitely sooner sell abroad for half price as I don’t want him strengthening city. This is going to be an extremely unpopular opinion but meh, it is what it is.
Have an exchange deal with Aquero coming to ES.
how about £70m and Aguero? They can afford it.
No way they are going to offer anywhere close to 70 million for him, when Trump talks about Fake News in the US all the time he should come to Europe and experience the Fake News around transfers.
Now put a pound in the Trump jar.
Liverpool have reportedly told Barcelona a 4th bid for Coutinho will be refused?
Who would sell Ozil to Barca for £50-£60mill?
If he’s made it clear he won’t be renewing?
I think he gets a lot of unfair stick.
But I’d be inclined to sell.
Thumbs up sell?
Thumbs down keep?
I would sell Ozil, I have gradually fallen out of love for him. I think you have to question his commitment, he was a sick note for a fair part of last season, he doesn’t look particularly happy and he has rejected a new contract. I know that there is a stat going around that he started 10 attacks/chances but at Arsenal you are always going to have that, plus I don’t think he’s mobile enough for one of the roles behind the striker. I think a more mobile front three of Lacazette, Draxler & Mahrez would be a much… Read more »
Ozil’s a world-class talent that has always been on winning sides, and now he’s part of a dysfunctional Arsenal team that can’t get out of it’s own way. Of course he doesn’t look happy. What would you have said if he was laughing in the locker room after the Stoke debacle? And I’m not sure what you mean by Ozil not being mobile? He’s all over the attacking side of the pitch, moving side to side and dropping deep to pick up the ball when he needs to. Watch the second half against Stoke again and note how every positive… Read more »
I feel that in those two roles behind the striker you need a bit of pace and to be able to beat a man, I don’t think that’s Ozil & I don’t know think the formation suits him. I take the point of movement but I’m sure Welbeck and Lacazette were doing this against Leicester & Stoke. My problem with Ozil is basically summed up in your post, the conditions/formation/players have to be aligned for him to be effective, that is an anherent problem in our team, when we play well we beat teams, if we play shit we hardly… Read more »
I think Wenger needed to commit to bringing in players to suit Ozil the summer after he came in, failing to do so has been a disservice to the player and the team.
I would argue (and it’s just my opinion) that he hasn’t been poor for awhile, he’s just been a misfit in this side.
talking about the Ox in the same class as Özil and Alexis is way off. Ox has 9 goals and 14 assists in seven years. He´s a good dribbler for sure but if that´s not combined with other qualities he´s just… well… a good dribbler
I would also say he’s a good passer. He’s also becoming outstanding in the duels and when he wins them the game opens up. He had by far his best season last time around in terms of goals+assists. He’s at an age where we’ve suffered educating him and we’re starting to see the rewards. Why give him to another club so they can benefit? It’ll just add weight to us being a feeder club. If City offer us £70mill for Alexis? Barca £50-60mill for Ozil? And we could renew contract of the Ox by offering him a role in front… Read more »
Good tell em to fek off!
We can still get M’bappe IMO. Let’s go in with a late 130 million offer. Here’s the idea. IN Lacazette 50 million M’bappe 130 million Kolasinac Free Chambers (returning from loan) Nelson, Maitland Niles (Promoted to first team) Mertesacker (LANS) El Neny/Monreal (Our new emergency CB’s) Bielik (On the verge of being promoted to first team) OUT Gabriel 10 million Szczesny 10 million Perez 10 million (assuming) Mustafi 25 million (assuming) Walcott 20 million (assuming) Gibbs 5 million (assuming) Net spend – 100 million pounds Line up: Cech, BFG, Kos, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, M’bappe, Alexis, Laca Subs: Ospina,… Read more »
I haven’t included Iwobi and Jack in the lineup plus, possible deals for Jon Toral (3 million), Ozyakup(potential income from his clause), Akpom and Debuchy.
We can balance the budget, free up space for wages and have the best front 3 in the world if we manage to do all this within a week.
I wonder why we are not hearing about offers for Ozil. hmmm…
I’d swap him for Gundogan.
I hope Sanchez and Lacazette gets injured for the whole season. I have never been so excited for a season as this. This year will be the undoing of arsenal or whatever that’s left of it anyways. Mark my words.
I hope your typing fingers get injured. Pathetic remark.
Force a player who wants out to stay at the club. What a great idea that is – I am sure he will give 100% every game. Wenger has destroyed what remote and tiny chance of success we had by doing absolutely nothing this summer other than signing the back up to Olivier Giroud in the French squad – a player who Arsenal fans say is not good enough for them yet keeps their “big money signing” out of the national team – what does that tell you? Sanchez wants out – stop playing the big club and let him… Read more »
The one difference between Alexis and Alex is there may well be interest to rival City’s from offshore. With the Ox, we are confined by interest from a domestic league rival. I think with Sanchez, we are waiting on the likes of PSG to finalize who they want to bring in next. Does the “Mbappe” ‘deal’ truly materialise…if not do they still have a semi erection for Alexis? One thing that puzzles me is with all the rubbish going on with Barca and their defective DNA at the moment, why aren’t they considering taking back the Chilean? We have developed… Read more »
With Barcelona – the issue is it’s hard to bring back a player they deemed not good enough in the first place- especially as he adds to what already is an old squad. They need younger players = why they are looking at Dembele. The problem I have with this whole thing at this point is lets say we sell Sanchez to City or PSG – we don’t have a replacement in house and any selling club will demand our whole Sanchez fee to replace him with what at least near term will be an inferior player (but with high… Read more »
Wenger clearly has no intention of pursuing three at the back. Selling Gabriel and treatment of chambers is evidence enough that he’s reducing the number of centre backs… dropping holding after the first game is further evidence. The selection for the first two games is a disgrace but the defensive performance will justify returning to 442 and Wenger will be happy…
Be strong Arsene and use Sanchez till 2018. As Arsenal is like a smooth running engine with him in the team. Then like a car with no engine in 2018/2019 use a new engine (striker) and let a used engine (Sanchez) be placed in an car were it doesn’t fit and needs adjusting (one season) were the engine (Sanchez) is only getting older every day…..
I would hate to be a supporter of Pessimistic City
I’m also pessimistic about Citeh’s pessimism over buying Sanchez and that makes me feel really optimistic.
All I can say is, if we sell him he has to go abroad,, no way on earth can we sell him to a rival team
Sanchez for Aguero, straight swap no money involved. I would take that.
They’ll still be valuable in January to CL clubs as they won’t be cup tied! Let’s play half the season and decide then!
There shouldn’t be a tipping point anymore at this stage.
We are two weeks into the season, Sanchez leaving would be damaging to the team. You recall what happened when Fabregas left in 2011?
We have no chance of winning anything with players in the team that don’t want to be there! Team spirit and collectivity are very important. We should have sold them all ages ago so we could find replacements. This is an enormous error imo.
Can someone explain to me why we reportedly are accepting £4 for Gibbs to galatasaray but rejected the £10 offer from Watford??
Could have been Gibbs that turned down Watford rather than Arsenal turning down £10m
Those Turkey people get great bargains! I would by Gibbs for £4…:-)
*buy 🙁
NO sale to CIty. We have to wait to see IF PSG continue with (rumoured) Mbappe deal or if they still have a semi hard on for Alexis. The same issue for Ox but more stark since there is no offshore interest. Absolutely NO sale to a rival domestically. And if you think we have done ‘poorly’ in market, check out Barca groping in the dark. First they sell off their top asset for the future, then they try and replace him with frankly (although he is younger) a mediocre version of Alexis in Coutinho. I’m perplexed they haven’t gone… Read more »
Coutinho is to replace iniesta who is hinting he might retire. Dembele is to replace Neymar
if we’re signing at least 2 more world class players, 1 in AM (Lemar/ Drexler), and 1 in CM (creative ball player splits defence and conducts midfield), then we stand a much better chance in challenging/ winning the EPL. if we’re not buying these players to give us the absolute best chance, then we’re going to be out of the running by February as usual, and we might as well cash in on all the players in final year of their contract and reinvest in players (that means alexis, mesut, ox, jack, all of them!) and try to qualify for… Read more »
I don’t think we are buying anyone else and we look well short of a focussed team.
I will just enjoy the wins we get…COYG!
I’d sooner offer some kind of swap deal to PSG to bring Draxler in. We won’t be improving a direct rival and would offload an older player that doesn’t want to be here with the future coming in
Why don’t Barca bid £80m for him? He’s exactly the right guy to replace Neymar. Pool aren’t selling and Dembele/Mbappe are too young/inexperienced for their price tags. PLEASE BARCA PICK UP THR PHONE AND CALL IVAN!!
Can we just ship Ozil and Ox and bring Mahrez and Lemar at once
Man City should look for another suitor. He is not for sale to them especially.We can’t afford to sell to a Premier League rival. As it stands now,he is the only world class player at Arsena -the only one that can change a game single handedly.
If a club like say Newcastle came in for 80m bid I would be ok with that. Just not one of the big domestic clubs.
Although clearly Alexis wouldnt be keen.
And if Man City bought Sanchez and Sanchez Scored a Hat-Trick against Arsenal, Let Wenger explain that in his Book on “Retiring from the Game”
But what Arsenal really need are two players, 1st a leader like Tony Adams, 2nd a Bulldozer like Costa who can bite your ankles similar to Leeds ex Billy Bremer…Arsenal players are too “Nice” as a team and really need to toughen up, ok the odd Red might be shown but at least they’d be determination shown, not the Pussy Footing Prima Ballerinas on display at the moment.