According to the Guardian, Man City have made a take it or leave it £20m offer to Arsenal for Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean is out of contract in the summer, and has no intention of signing a new deal, so the Gunners must now weigh up the option of taking some money for him now – which they could use to reinvest in the squad at some point – or retain the services of the joint leading scorer and watch him join Pep Guardiola’s side for free in the summer.
City’s move is believed to have been made in the wake of the injury to Gabriel Jesus, and the Spaniard is keen to work with the player he signed for Barcelona from Udinese in 2011. However, despite their deep pockets, they’re not prepared to offer more for a player who will cost nothing in a few months time.
It’s a complicated situation, not least because Arsenal are a team short on goals at the moment.
Both Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette have 8 each to their name, a not particularly impressive total given we’re in early January, while Olivier Giroud has 6 and Danny Welbeck 5.
Arsene Wenger has marginalised Theo Walcott, who scored 19 times last season, to the point of departure, and the Frenchman will have to consider whether £20m now in this current market is going to get him a player who can make up for what we’d lose if Sanchez were to go.
It’s exactly the kind of situation we knew we could face if we kept him last summer, especially when we made moves to let him go late in the window but failed to do it with enough time to bring in Monaco’s Thomas Lemar.
Wenger says he has yet to decide whether or not the 29 year old will play against Chelsea tomorrow night in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup.
His participation, or otherwise, could well tell us a lot.
Ask for 5m more in add ons if not just take it.
We are not their peer rivals anyway for this season at least.
Then we need to spend on a Draxler (so long if he is under 90m)
We need to watch the striker situation too. Lacazette is yet o fully take flight, Giroud may leave end of season and Welbeck is hardly even plan C.
Sell Walcott as well and get Mahrez.
Will we spend that much money though…likely not. Unfortunate bc we are so far away technically and creatively.
What will that bit of money get you these days … definitely nothing that will be better thanw ahtever Sanchez will contribute between now and the end of the season. Keep him.
If 20m is correct, that is considerably more than I thought they would bid. I was expecting proper hard ball.
Imagine if we got more for Theo than Alexis this window…
I think it’s important not to think of it as what can we buy with 20 million, but maybe with an extra 20 million in the bank we can afford to buy a 60 million replacement instead of 40 million, etc.
Not that we couldn’t already afford 60 million, or that we would actually reinvest, but just saying..
I agree with the point you are making, I’d go a little bit further and say that AW is no longer the right person to be spending transfer funds. A change of manager is needed and any transfer decisions now shouldn’t make a bigger mess for the next person to pick up. Also if we are basing out transfer decisions on a statistical program that rejected the performance levels of griezmann and de bryune, then that should also be looked at
Actually, statDNA highlighted De Bruyne, it was Wenger that ignored it.
Not process is better. Wenger is the one the made it known about Griezman, yet failed to mention all the other players statDNA got right (kante prior to his super performance was on their list), let alone his own recent amount of failures.
Besides, I don’t even think either of those two would be the same players they are now if they were at Arsenal. They’d get Arsenalised pretty quick.
Except good replacements cost 20m more in January. So, short of waiting until the summer, we are in the same position. Let’s be realistic – we have 5 more ties in the Europa, starting with two legs with Ostersund. This is our best CL chance. A motivated Sanchez or not, who else in Europe, let alone in this team is capable of getting goals and assists from nothing? Wenger knows this and has proved, if nothing else over the last years, he has a cup team capable of performing superbly well in one off games. 20 million is a disgrace… Read more »
I’m not sure that’s actually right anymore b/c prices keep exploding every summer. Given how much they keep going up coupled with the World Cup I’m not sure
1. we would actually save anything by purchasing a Lemar or Draxler now vs. the summer
2. we might have a better shot at getting someone now when there’s less competition than there will be in the summer
Does anyone honestly think “buying Insert Name Here” will fix what’s wrong at Arsenal? We have Sanchez, and it doesn’t work. There are very few players that would make us better. And they’d still not fix the myriad of problems. I don’t wish to sound like a diehard pessimist, but spending a fortune on Lemar or Draxler would just give a pretend excuse. “Look, we’re acting” – yeah, but headline signings is not what’s lacking at Arsenal. At all.
Disagree completely. For much of this season Sanchez has been a complete liability, his only contribution being the ability to lose the ball over and over and over and over again. Yes, he has had a few decent games (which, I may be overly cynical here, but have conveniently coincided with the start of the transfer window), but how many more are we able to going pull out of him, especially if he decides to sulk between now and the summer knowing that he has a nice fat paycheck waiting at City irrespective of what he does for the rest… Read more »
Two points 1) we can sell for 20 and rid Arsenal of the ongoing Alexis unrest + add some financial firepower
2) we keep Alexis and aim for CL qualification which will 1) Attract better players 2) bring us 16 £ if we reach the final 16… and a further 5-6 m£ for every knockout round.
I’d go for option no. 2
Sanchez has created the 4th highest number of chances per 90 mins in the entire league (both ozil and Sanchez average around 3.5 chances per game).
That’s on top of being our overall joint highest scorer (or second highest). Take him out the team and we lose both creativity and finishing ability.
There’s no way we’re signing top replacements for ozil & sanchez if we’re not in the CL for two seasons running.
Stats dont tell the whole story how many games have we dropped points or conceeded important goals because of his inability to keep the ball?
One Thierry Henry also lost the ball quite a lot. Is that what people remember about him? No.
It is normal to lose the ball in the attacking third if you are a player who gets on the ball very often and tries high risk passes very often. He fits into Guardiola’s philosophy perfectly for that reason – does “Master of Possession” Guardiola wanting him not say a lot about Sanchez’s qualities?
You’ve all got your hands over your eyes and fingers in your ears if you think losing Sanchez would be anything other than terrible.
well its better than nothing, and sanchez wont contribute much for the rest of the season
As much as I hate to say it, but City are genuinely on the brink of becoming unstoppable. I don’t know if anyone saw the game last night, but they’re bringing Sergio off the bench to win them Carabao Cup games. Their spending power is ridiculous. Combined with the fact they have Pep, who’s regarded as the most innovative footballing mind around at moment. All the top foreign players want to play for them because they’re paying the biggest wages, their training facilities are unreal, they’ve got the best gaffa in charge, and they’re genuinely starting to dominate the domestic… Read more »
Not enough money. City are clearly bluffing they’d definitely go higher, and if they won’t, forget it. £70m in summer = £35m now, it’s only fair.
Nah, balls to this. Take the money, the speculation has hurt us enough as it is. Get rid of Mesut abroad, Alexis can go to Citeh, 40-50M in the bank and let’s get back to investing in young, hungry, athletic players. We clearly don’t have the expertise to handle world class players and the ego that goes with them. This club needs gutting, might as well start now.
Disagree. Offer Mesut the world to stay. Out of the two he is by far the more valuable player to us.
If Ozil stays I will judge his character and ambition more than if he leaves. What kind of a player of Ozil’s stature would want to stay in an environment like this?
Is ambition wanting to be a luxury to a team that already wins everything and don’t need you? Or is ambition wanting to pull an average side over the line to competition wins? To me, it would say a lot more about his character if he decided to stay and fight for something at Arsenal, rather than take the easy money and easy medals at a Bayern or Barcelona.
What exactly would we be fighting for ? The PL , CL or the FA Cup. He is 29 years old and probably his last chance to win something . Forget Barca & Bayern, he can join Man Utd where in his eyes the probability of winning is higher than us. Sad but true.
If Mesut wanted to stay, he would’ve signed by now. Last year he said he didn’t want to commit until the manager signed. What’s stopping him now? Wanting to “focus during the season and worry about contracts in the summer” is exactly the line that RVP used.
He’s got a good marketing team behind him that’s good at making us fans believe that he still wants to stay. But in reality, he’s probably ordered his agent to start negotiating contracts with other clubs.
And who would even be willing to come to us right now? What “young, hungry, athletic” players are jumping at the chance to play for this club and this manager in this January transfer window. Not a lot, I’m guessing.
Santori mentions Draxler. If Draxler is remotely interested in even entertaining the possibility of coming to us right now, I’d be shocked.
Did you know much about Anelka, Henry, Ljungberg, Pires, Cesc, Viera… before we signed them? We aren’t a huge club so let’s stop behaving like one. We are, and always have been, a plucky underdog who come good once in a while. A shiny stadium or marquee signings doesn’t change that. Draxler is way out our league now, get a hold of yourself man.
Mentioning names some as far back as 20 years ago really doesn’t help.
Just making the point that’s our only three options aren’t Goretzka, Lemar or Draxler. Didn’t realise I was supposed to be helping…
beg to differ pal, while I agree with your analysis, I disagree with your statistical base…..Arsenal is no “plucky underdog”, we are number 5 in ranking in terms of supporter base and 7 in the world in terms of income and these are the 2 metrics commonly used for ranking a club, you can check the stats for yourself……I agree with you though, difference in my point being that we are being ran like a “plucky underdog” while not being actually one……greedy bastards!
I don’t think Alexis will be the difference between us finishing in the top four or not. Even with his goals we’ll be 5th or lower, as we are now…with his goals. In that case, I don’t see the point in throwing away £20m just because he might, *might* make the difference between 7th or 6th, etc. Who knows? Maybe Cohesion will return from the treatment room once Alexis leaves, and the goals will come from elsewhere?
haha treatment room, good one
I see him as without doubt – the difference between a Europa league or not – however. Which is a means to the same end. I would 100% keep him for the rest of the season.
Thats the key. If Arsenal are serious about champions league enxt season, they have to keep Alexis and Ozil, and throw everything at the Europa League. It is more realistic for the club to get back to CL via Europa then somehow finding form and sneaking 4th spot.
Although I do wonder what the impact of Coutinho leaving will have on Liverpool, they might start dropping unexpected points.
The biggest thing that threatened Liverpool’s top four spot was their leaky defence. They’ve somewhat fixed that with Van Dijk.
Liverpool were doing well offensively when Coutinho had his fake back injury anyway.
The rebuild this summer is going to be massive, it would be nice to have an extra 20m to help out. I agree that I don’t think he will be the difference between 4th or 5th. We are fighting for Europa League, and I would like to see how we cope without him. I might regret that when we don’t cope, and just start free falling down the table…
That’s wishful thinking bobbo. The rebuild NEEDS to be massive but I’m sure it won’t be. We’ve needed a massive rebuild for a while now.
Top 4 is lost… Our only path to CL is through the Europa League, which is also hard for us to win as is. Keep him. He himself’d hame more levarage for salary negotiations.
true talk homie
Agreed. We had the same worries when Henry and Cesc left. Sometimes an important player leaving can give the team a kick up the arse.
Not at all, this is completely different – we were in the Champion’s league at the time and could (in theory) have our pick of players.
It is hard to escape the ‘2nd rate Europa rut’ as Liverpool will testify. They are about to pinch Lemar off us and have already knocked back 75m on a centre back – because they are in the Champions League.
Keep Sanchez, he is our best hope of making it back. Get in or die trying.
We struggled to attract players even with CL football.
Ultimately, it’s down to money. United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and City in recent years have not struggled to bring in top players, even when they weren’t involved in the CL that season. Why? ££££££.
We’re a stingy club, we leave things until the last minute, and we drop out of deals over a matter of a few million quid when any other club would just pay it and move on.
Our transfer issues absolutely transcend the matter of whether or not we’re offering CL football.
I agree our past transfer issues and ability to actually complete a deal for a good player have completely hinged on money. Players want money, clubs want money, yes. But money comes from sponsorship and exposure, more and more through TV. These new sponsorships deals (Emirates and Puma due to be renewed soon) are far far greater in the Champions League than not. More money coming in = more money going out on wider scouting and better players. Manchester clubs are wanna-be real Madrid buying the next shiny toy. Chelsea buy every promising young player under the sun and hope… Read more »
Sorry, I don’t follow. Liverpool haven’t bought a single world class player since the 1980s? Are you seriously claiming this? Luis Suarez? Phillipe Coutinho? Xabi Alonso? Fernando Torres? Javier Mascherano? I also wonder why you leave out ‘sugar daddy petrol owners’ as one source of money…one more important than sponsorship deals. I just don’t buy the theory that CL is the game-changer in attracting players. We’ve been poor in the transfer market for years now, even when CL was assured. And if we kept Sanchez, I’d bet real money on us still finishing outside the top four. Liverpool, Tottenham, United,… Read more »
As I said above, all Liverpool’s best players were not world class when they bought them – they improved at the club. Any player worth their salt is going to move to a club in the CL rather than one that is not. In today’s premier league I would argue CL is even more important as everybody has money – Bournemouth can pay 6 figure salaries for god’s sake. My point will be proven when Thomas Lemar and Draxler choose not to come to Arsenal in the summer. (Excuse the reference) But why do you think mourinho was so desperate… Read more »
@myrtle If Lemar or Draxler choose not to come to Arsenal it will be because of money, not CL football. Why did Yaya Toure join Man City in 2010? Was CL on offer…or was a boatload of cash on offer? When elite players talk about CL football being a factor, they’re being nice. Sure, it’s a bonus, but the real draw is the wage packet, and, of course, whether the buying club is willing to stump up the fee. And btw, Torres, for example, was one of the hottest strikers in Europe when Liverpool signed him. The idea that Liverpool… Read more »
Re Yaya Toure: he joined Man city on 200k per week having already won 2 La Ligas and the Champions League itself with Barca! What more club motivation did he have other than money? My point is that now, the real draw is not the wage packet, because every club can pay it. The real draw is a maximum chance of honours in a career that regularly last 10-15 years. Hence why Ozil and Sanchez want to leave, not for money but to win the big honours, as Arsenal are not currently able to. I firmly believe Arsenal can win… Read more »
What I would say, however, is that there’s likely a ‘tax’ or incentive that non-CL clubs pay on wages when they want to attract a player who could play CL elsewhere but chooses the non-CL club instead. Sure. I don’t know how you measure that, but it seems to make sense.
Anyway, for me, the anxiety about making the top four is irrelevant since we’re not making it with or without Sanchez.
Pleb you’ve conveniently forgotten only one team had to pay off a brand new £400m stadium in that time.
It’s been paid off for how long now? It was supposed to take us to the next level, compete with Bayern, etc., but instead we just look to be stagnating as a club, or, worse, in slow decline.
Look, we’ve been over the stadium thing and debt etc. ad nauseum in the last ten years. I return to my main point, which is that we should sell Sanchez now. If we don’t, we’re throwing away £20m for a finish that isn’t guaranteed even if he stays, and may be of negligible consequence even if he leaves.
To be fair when we moved nobody saw what was going to happen in terms of owners and their vast sums of money. Also players move for money. I know all clubs have money now but its relative. If Bournemouth were to pay a player 200m a week the top players in the league would expect more than double that. what happens now with Sanchez I think is irrelevant. If he stays I think he’ll keep on playing knowing whats coming to him at the end of the season. The only think that may cross his mind is that Jesus… Read more »
The consequence is crystal clear. No champions league and a huge summer rebuild with 2nd rate players.
Wenger’s decision to not sell this summer is classic cutting off your nose to spite your face, I cannot for the life of me understand why Wenger thought that “the situation is ideal”.
Unfair criticism. Everyone wanted Wenger to keep him based off of his performance last season. Now that he’s not been as prolific everyone wants to rag on Wenger, it hypocritical. We should keep him unless City pay at least $30m pounds for him. He’s worth more to us on the team if we don’t plan on immediately replacing him in this window. All the talk of player unrest because of him is largely bullcrap.
he tought we can fight for the title with city and man utd, and we cant even fight for 4th place the only thing we done was breaking record in the history of the club for shipping most goals till now. Am sure that wenger now is bashing his head in the wall for not letting him gone for 70mil in the summer we all saw it that not letting hin go would make alexis play way below par this season only wenger with his stuborbess decided not to sell him and bow we will pay for that for many… Read more »
I’d sell him for £10m to psg or somewhere abroad. Can’t fault the guy, he’s been brilliant for us. I just don’t want to see such a world class player go to a direct rival.
City are not direct rivals any more unfortunately. They are a step above.
Just the one?
try 10 steps above as the liverpool and totenham are 3 steps above for sure.
The problem is he is under no obligation to goto PSG even if Arsenal accept the bid. His mind is made up, he is going to ManCity whetehr Arsenal let him this transfer window or on a free in the northern summer.
Not sure what you’re smoking… City don’t actually NEED Sanchez, he’d just be a nice-to-have while they wait for Jesus to get back from injury. Sanchez has already made it clear he wants to go to City in the summer, so we have no competing bids to drive the price up. We have ZERO leverage. I’m actually surprised City have made that high an offer. I say we need to take it otherwise that’s 20m flushed away.
Actually we do have some levarage – he is only interested in going to city. And if they want him now, they should cough it up. Its not only the league, they will need him in the CL, I’d guess even more. I would not be surprised if Jesus’ injury surprisingly takes longer after January ends.
How doesn’t the fact he only wants to join City give us leverage? They know full well he’s theirs for free at the end of the season so don’t necessarily need to sign him this window.
*Does
Jack, in addition to what Bid says below, I’d ask you this: If Alexis is the difference between us winning the Europa League and getting back in the CL that way, or not, would you still say it’s worth selling? (Obviously the top 4 would accomplish the same thing, but in addition to winning a trophy being nicer, I also think our chances in the EL are way better than our chances getting top 4 in the league right now.) It’s a complete hypothetical of course, but it’s obvious that unless we invest BIG in this window on a replacement… Read more »
Will Arsene wait until the last day of the window to let Alexis go for that £20M then scurry around for a stopgap player? It is the Arsenal way.
Most probably…just decide whether to sell or not and crack on with it. All this dithering is so frustrating, if we hold out for another £5-10m and have to wait till the end of the window for it we’ll be left with signing Charlie Austin!
Don’t the board have some responsibility for signings, or have we all jumped on the Wenger does everything it’s his fault bandwagon even when clearly not true?
I’m interested to see if this chap we signed from Barcelona (what does he do? Director of football?) makes a difference in the window.
My suspicion is that he will be struck down by the chronic malady that seems to affect everyone else in a position of power and influence at the club…
“Idonthavethegonadstomakeafuckingdecisiononewayortheotheritis”
Considering that the chap from Barcelona doesn’t start until February, I wouldn’t bank on him doing much during the window.
Well said mate. Trump v N. Korea = Fucking Wenger It’s raining and windy = fucking Wenger Weinsteins a rapist = fucking Wenger What are the board doing? There’s enough of them. Sitting there watching all this happen because they know they’ll escape all the shit because we’ll all shout ‘fucking Wenger’. They all sit there with their fingers up their arses, blankets over their knees, collecting millions on top of millions. And I know it may well be time for him to take a back seat now but most of this shit started when they came along. He’s done… Read more »
Good reminder about the catastrophic lack of leadership from our boardroom. After making a profit in the summer they should have had two new signings ready to go on Jan 1st. But we sit here and accept that “nothing is close” because we’re so used this annual display of transfer window uselessness. I’ve developed a kind of grudging respect for that crimnal Abramovich who at least had the good sense when Chelsea were going through their bad patch to attend training and show his support for the team. Just thinking about Sir Chips’ pathetic statement we got last season or… Read more »
Tune in to find out on this episode of ‘Same shite, different day’.
Whatever city is willing to pay for Alexis, I doubt their offer would stay on the table until the end of the window…they have an interest in pushing this through fast if the justification is that this deal would provide them with cover for the injured Gabriel Jesus. Otherwise, they’d be getting Alexis just as Jesus would be returning to training (almost)!
I can’t disagree with that. You’re right.
We are a begging team, if course we will take whatever pittance they offer. A player worth 3x over going for free. What a club Mr Wenger, what a club!
Not exactly in a strong position here, are we?
The understatement of the year, so far.
We don’t seem to have any coherent plan We seem to either be adding band aids or simply rely on youth before they prove they can deliver. Indictments: Szsc sold instead of being pushed into first spot but with Cech competing. Not pushing Gnabry into first squad instead mollycoddlying the Ox when he should have forced him to put pen to paper. We ended up losing BOTH. Selling Gabriel who was improving and instead gambling on the fitness of Koscielny and as mention both HOlding and Chambers before they showed any delivery on potential. We even tried to sell Mustafi…for… Read more »
Cheers Santori.
That Johnny Evans appropriate comparison to Schillaci
Or Silvestre. I’ve got no ideas why his name keeps cropping up in association with Arsenal FC. If he was good enough, he would have been still at Man Utd and certainly wouldn’t have gone to West Brom.
The rumours about him being wanted by Man City etc misbehave generated by his agent or West Brom, trying to create a competition scenario?!
Our scouting system and personnel must be worse than shit, if we’re considering Johnny Evans!!!
Coat for me
Let him go and do not play him anymore. Bench the ignorant pig. He is not bigger than our club, although he thinks he is
Let him go and don’t play him.
*Susan has cake. Susan eats cake*
Cake is delicious.
I love Susan if she is a female. I am especially fond of Susan that makes cake
So creepy…
Go on Walenaija, ask her her asl.
Thanks for your loving-kindness my fellow gunner
Did somebody say cake..?
No, everybody said Coke!
I would try & negotiate for a bit more (25-30) and then sell him. It’s only going to get more poisonous the longer he stays.
Alexis has clearly not been the player he is capable of being this year.
Sell him & actually spend some money, we have loads of it, we are obcessed with value when we should be obcessed with having a full & balanced squad.
Please Arsenal & Arsene for once, show some backbone, show you care, stop being risk adverse & conservative & start behaving like a big club.
If Alexis is actually giving Pep his (Alexis’) £25M sell on bonus as a makeweight (per the Guardian), then maybe we can prise a little more cash from City. Just don’t leave it too long, AW.
Just sell him already, start the rebuild. We don’t seem to be a top 4 team with him so how much worse can it get without him. Will be gone anyways in 6 months. Could improve the team spirit too.
The rebuilding should start from changing the manager, this man should not be given any more fund to sign players ( our owner won’t give any money)
Agree the biggest problems are the board and the manager but we should get what we can for Alexis and invest now/in the summer (when Wenger might be gone). Should have sold him last summer already.
Depends on your definition of team spirit. If It’s everyone getting on & being mates then yes Alexis leaving will help….but that’s not really what team spirit is. With or without Alexis this team have proved over & over they don’t have real team spirit. I.e. a culture of driving each other on. A culture of not allowing people to carry on making the same mistakes. A culture of standing by your teammate & helping him out of a hole, whether you think he’s an arsehole or not. A culture of being an adult & giving & taking stick when… Read more »
And according to you Sanchez stands up to opposition players to defend his Arsenal teammates??? Sorry, but I’ve never seen that happening with Sanchez. Our players never stand up for each other in brawls. Probably Jack, Granit and Mustafi… the rest of of them are too worried that they’d ruin their hairstyle and gel in the scuffle. As much as I hate Chelski and scum Sp@rs, but they got all involved in that brawl. Costa assaulted Koscielny, only for him and the rest of the Arsenal teammates not even saying a word (apart from Gabriel). Some of Arsenal tossers (I… Read more »
Billy+Enfield, very confusing post.
You have a go about something I never said (the Alexis bit) & then the rest sounds like you’re attacking me even though you’re actually agreeing with me?
Goodluck Alexis. Now you have the opportunity to work with manager who has ambition to win major trophies.
All you can do is laugh really.
wooh seems like an “ideal situation” if ever I saw one.
£20 million for Theo sounds great no matter how long he has on his contract but for Alexis no way. Where is the sense in handing City the treble? Maybe in the summer there will be other teams in Europe that want him as well. Unless City are willing to trade with Aguero we should not allow the sale of our leading forward.
You wanna keep a forward who is toxic in our dressing room
City will win the PL anyway, we are not their rival atm. He will sign for them in the summer if not now. We need the money too as we aren’t as rich as the oil clubs.
Actually we probably are but we have an owner with no ambition who is only interested in taking profit out of the club.
20 million now or 0 in the summer.
But what if he’s the difference between winning the Europa (and qualifying for the CL) and not. Surely 20m for that is a bargain.
LOL @ Matt.
Maybe in the summer there will be other teams in Europe interested in him???
What’s in it for us in the summer? He’s free to go anywhere he likes to go
Take 30 million, plus tell City to keep their oily hands off of Evans.
Johnny Evans =Franz Beckenbauer
P.s. Sarcasm
He should have gone before the start of the season. Not only for the sake of us getting as much as possible from selling him but more so for us being rid of a player who doesn’t want to be here. It’s a great shame we didn’t get our arses in gear to make it happen then but at least if we can make it happen now. 20 million is better than nothing.
God knows who we’ll replace him with. I fear the times ahead will be bleak. God help us!
So now is the time for Sir bloody Chips & co to finally do something to save the club. Even Kronke (if he even knows) must realize giving Whinger total control re transfers out etc has backfired big time.
Unfortunately our arses are not in gear – but the handbrake is certainly on!
20 million, that’s barely a Ross Barkley in today’s market. Keep him, win the Europa, and sell in the offseason!
Who am I kidding, we couldn’t win the Europa even if ever remaining game was a home match.
What happened to our beloved Arsenal? The Downward Spiral has truly started…
It keeps looking a bit more shit by the day, doesn’t it?
in the off season he’ll be free so no sale there….I suggest keep him and get Flamini back for a training ‘session’ the day before his contract is up….
LOL
Bring Flamini back for what, a conjugal visit? You cheeky monkey
I’ll keep Sanchez and play him in every match esp FA Cup when we still facing a weak opponent, oh wait, maybe we need to sell him though
Take the money and tell them they have to take his turnovers as well!
Wenger is such a dickhead.
During the summer he admits his own contract issues had a bearing on the players during the season….then expects our three best players contract situations to NOT be an issue this season.
Total mismanagement from top to bottom…and it’s f***ing rotten.
Yes, total mismanagement. And Wenger is the manager. A once great one
Was he really great though?
Great managers don’t keep Sanchez against his will at the club. He hasn’t performed from end of December 2016. Wenger had a preview of the scenario of what would happen… from January 2017 till June 2017 and still decided to keep Sanchez…
Now, call me sentimental, but if I was in Wenger’s situation and Sanchez wasn’t performing (like he isn’t this season) I would have sent him to train with the Under 21.
That’s a sign of great manager, Ferguson used to put people in their place when needed
This is not a fair assessment of Alexis last season. He played three summers in a row at a super-high level, came back injured in pre-season and we had to rush him back into action because we started the season with a weak squad. He had an electric Champions League group stage, scoring or assisting in nearly every game until he got another knock. When he got back into the team in the new year he looked tired. With him out of form and Ozil in his worst form we had a disastrous run but both players recovered by the… Read more »
The two clearest reasons to keep him relate to Arsenal qualifying for Champions League next year, i.e., he improves Arsenal’s chances to finish in EPL top 4 or to win Europa League, neither of which seem likely even with him. The only other reason to keep is that, even at his current less than enthused self, he is Arsenal’s most potent threat and prevents the wheels from completely falling off the bus. The corollary to all of the above is, if Alexis is sold in January, Arsene will definitely not come back next season. I say this because, without Alexis,… Read more »
Lacazette ….can he step up?!?
If Giroud had started the games he has, he would have scored at least 8…probably more.
I think one thing to consider is how many late goals we score because of the high late pressure, and Lacazette has always been subbed off by then so he never gets a shot at them. I wager he’d get a handful more if he were on during our most dangerous attacking pushes.
Just sell him and get somebody who wants to be here. I’m sick of this saga. He’ll end up hogging the ball and demanding to play every game and acting like a sulky five year old because he can’t play so good luck to them.
I would certainly keep him for that money. He is worth more to us for the rest of the season than he is to Man City. He significantly increases our chances of making the CL via either the league or Europa League, which would be worth more than double the £20m. Given the odds of us making the CL with him, it seems a straightforward decision to me. Let him go in the summer, when we’ve got a summer to find a decent replacement. We raised that money selling off two fringe players last summer (Szcz and Gabriel).
How sure are we that as the season progresses he doesn’t phone it in (more than he has done) & saves himself from being injured?
In my own opinion things will get more & more toxic if he stays.
Well how sure are you that selling him and bringing in some unknown who needs a season to adjust is going to pan out.. There are 16 games left in the league, 4 months. He has shown already this season he’s not downing tools. Besides he can leave on a free in the summer with best wishes and a massive personal signing on fee. I do not see this happening.
This is where you are relying on your scouting, but better to get someone in with a point to prove instead of someone not waiting to leave.
Relying on that shiny new scouting network that’s had less than two weeks in the job? Then relying on that player to become an instant replacement… Sure.
I think I’ll gamble on the player who got 27 goals and 13 assists last season.
And what player with serious quality (and at a price we’re willing to pay) is even going to want to come to us in this window?
Sell Alexis to the manager that kept him on the bench at Barca and will do the same at city once Jesus is fit again. And use that 20 mil to put towards the young faster Alexis that plays for Boca Cristian Pavon as he looks like a young hungry Alexis sanchez…..
Come on wenger do it…. you know you want to.
I’ve got past the point of caring anymore.
Has been distinctly average this season. Sorry to say it but despite all the good moments he’s had for us, he’s a poisonous presence in the dressing room and as such has to go. However £20m seems far too little. I would consider shipping him abroad for that much but definitely not to a team in the PL. If they cough up £35-40m for him then that’s not something we can say no to. As for a replacement, would be nice for once if we were to get someone (good, i.e. not Jonny Evans) in earlier rather than bidding stupid… Read more »
Using just as much as evidence as you I could conclude that Walcott’s the poisonous presence in the dressing room. For a long time he was the highest paid player, couldn’t keep possession and still jumped out of tackles against Sunderland.
If we’re going to get rid of Alexis, get rid of all the mediocre players as well, Ramsey, Giroud, Walcott, Welbeck and start fresh with the younger players. Because without Alexis this team will sink down the table like a rock.
Keep him just to spite him and Citeh!
It was a big mistake not letting him go in the summer for 50mil and buying lemar for 90mil. Lemar is not worth that sum but i think we would have been far better with lemar as not letting alexis go made him play worse thaan walcott. Now we get peanuts for him and we have alittle chance that lemar would still want to join us. There are options pay the price for mahrez am sure he would come but knowing wenger i doubt he will go for a big player in January and we would end up taking 20… Read more »
We did survive nasri, Fab, Dutch Skunk leaving didn’t we? We’ll survive this too. COYG!
What a fucking state we’re in. You look at the value of players in the top couple of clubs, they all have a player worth surplus of £80 million in todays market, maybe bar Liverpool.
Our best player is fetching us 20 million. Christ.
We’ve never been good at selling players for more than they’re worth, it’s embarrassing.
We never been good at buying either, Lee!
We couldn’t buy Lemar last summer even for double the price he’s worth…
We took an absolute piss at Liverpool with that bid for Luis Suarez, £40M and 1 single pound.
We should not sell and make him run every day for 12hours so he is too tired to play and then he will be so rubbish no other club will want him so he has to sign a new contract with us. We should start a chant at the bridge tomorrow so Wenger hears the plan. It will be funny he has to stay ha ha ha.
If we end up selling alexis for 20 and buying johnny new silverstre evans for 25 it will be right there with the biggest transfer fuck ups in the history.
It’s a shame he’s not staying but we had his best years and things move on. I don’t understand all the reaction.
let him off. then let hector get stuck in at the next meeting.
Just take it. It’s better than the nothing we’ll get in the summer, and I think getting rid of him will ultimately benefit the club. His attitude has been a problem for on the team for quite a while. We certainly are not going to challenge for anything more than a fourth place finish, so no be loss either way. Time to start restructuring the team.
Good negotiating… Simples. Leave it.
Really? So Pep wants to low-ball Arsenal? When he could practically assure himself of a double, treble, or (*gasp*) quadruple?
Wonder how much of an exit fee (another £20M maybe!) Alexis might fork over– to ensure he gets those same winner’s medals?
Guess we’d then see if he’s more about silver– or gold.
jw1
To be fair, if he leaves Arsenal now, he’ll probably never have another chance to win the Europa league.
It’s funny how when it comes to transfers financially, we sound so much like a second-tier team that we can’t compete with the “big boys.” I guess even Liverpool has more money to spend than we do. Who next, Tottenham too?
I’m convinced Wenger is going at the end of the season and always was and I believe this is behind his reluctance to sell Sanchez last summer and nothing has changed. I firmly believe that we will fare better, on the pitch, with him still available to us. We should keep him – £20m is nowhere near enough to making a difference to signing any replacement.
£20m just isn’t enough to justify selling him to City. Yes he’s been rubbish this season and yes he’s a terrible influence in the dressing room but we can surely get more. Hold out for £35-40m from a PL team or sell him for less abroad. As for a replacement let’s try and get someone (good – i.e. not Jonny Evans) in early rather than bidding stupid amounts on deadline day and becoming more of an embarrassment than we already are.
Just realised that five of our first eleven seemingly wanted to leave the club in the summer: Ozil, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sanchez and of course Ox.
Dressing room must be toxic.
We shouldn’t sell to city as they are still on to become invisibles. Don’t need to give them any help with that. We may not have much right now but at least we can still cling on to our glorious past
Sorry, Tomasi, but I just don’t see it
I hope this is rock bottom. I know it’s not…
Nudge for a bit more, and take it either way. Out with the bad apple. Point and laugh when he’s sitting on the City bench next year, whining about it like he did at Barca. I’ve had it with him. The stats are up there. Laca’s Got as many as him, he’s underperforming, and he’s a primadonna. Hell, Danny is catching up with his tally! Focus on keeping Ozil at all costs. We’re just flat out better with him than without. BuT sooner (hopefully) or later we’re going to need another quality wide player. Cob together the loose change we… Read more »
I think there’s a good chance he will step up if he joins Man City. Firstly because he’ll have to but no doubt being in a winning side will help bring out the best in him as well. This is something we should be aware of when we let him go. It won’t change the fact that he didn’t want to be here and that were weren’t going to get anywhere near the same out of him that Citeh will. Whichever way we bite it it’s a shit sandwich but I believe getting rid of him will be the slightly… Read more »
Ever since the Bayern game – laughing at us getting a new one ripped – no time for him at all. Fuck off Alexis.
Sell all of the players who want to go, get rid of the dross and damaged. We need to rebuild from the core, Sanchez has no commitment to anything but his wallet and that isn’t good enough for Arsenal
Not like they’ll lower the bloody ticket prices anyhow so what’s it matter to us simple mortals……….
One thing that stood out massively on Sunday (and regularly does) is the lack of rollicking players give each other on the pitch. There were a number of times when Ospina should have roasted Holding/Per/Debuchy but didn’t say a word. Top class teams tear into one another when standards drop. Kos/Cech regularly guilty of this. How many times has Xhaxa for example been confronted on the pitch for horrific errors this season?
Shouldve played him in cup. We might have got through and he’d be cup tied and City would still want him. Ship him out. Although I have no faith that the money would be sensibly reinvested. Tired of describing Arsenal as an outdoor slaughterhouse but shambles is really the only way to describe them.
I was all for selling, but not for that disrespectful offer. It’s not about getting a replacement of similar quality for the money, because that was never going to happen anyway (at most we were hearing they were going to offer 35-40, which at best is half of what we’d need to find a new player). It’s about whether it’s worth it financially. Yes we’ll get nothing in the summer. But he could be the difference between making the top four and not. Alexis has been poor so far this season, but even so, he’s STILL been worth more than… Read more »
There was a discussion above that I agree with – it’s not about getting some perceived actual value when a player can leave on a free in a few months’ time. 20m is a useful amount to upgrade a planned purchase. Besides, whether or not Alexis could be decisive is in part dependent on if he feels like showing up for the remainder of the season and registering anything on the give-a-shit meter. Half the matches this season he hasn’t. Add to that the poison in the well every day. The club smoothes it over, but it’s surely at least… Read more »
I just care about these things because it’s my club, but it’s just going to get worse and worse, and most uf us already know that.
It is so sad that we are in this situation. Remembering in the future that the once great Arsene became completely unaware and incapable towards the end, taking the club down with him…
Anyway, Gunner forever.