Various publications this morning suggest that Manchester City are set to make a bid for Alexis Sanchez in January.
Quite why they think they need him right now is anybody’s guess, give their lead at the top of the table, but perhaps the injury to Gabriel Jesus has prompted them to test Arsenal’s resolve over keeping him.
Arsene Wenger has said a number of times that expects the Chilean to stay until the end of his contract, but he also insisted he wouldn’t sell him last summer before trying to do just that at the end of the transfer window.
Arsenal failed to seal a deal for Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, meaning Sanchez had to stay, but it showed that the club’s position was nowhere near as fixed as they said it was.
The well informed James Olley in the Evening Standard suggests a bid of £40m would tempt the Gunners into a sale, but even a club with pockets as deep as City would find it hard to justify that kind of outlay on a player they could sign for free in the summer.
His departure could also only be justified if there was a quality replacement lined up, because even though his season has been below his best, he’s our joint leader scorer and second leading assist maker.
Of course much of what happens in January is speculation, so we’ll wait and see what happens, but as with everything else at Arsenal right now, nothing would be a surprise.
The situation continues to be ideal.
I will be gutted if he ends up at City. Say what you want about him being selfish, and that his arrogance and recent behavior is detrimental to the team. But right now, we are such a mess, and we need a guy that can score goals out of nothing, and he is literally the only guy in our team that has that in his locker. If you cast your mind back to that Invincible’s team. Alexis Sanchez is 100% good enough to get in that side, bar Mesut Ozil and maybe Koscielny, nobody else in our current setup would… Read more »
I think he should go now … anyway we aren’t going to win anything this season …so let’s give the new manager ( ancelotti for example ) time to adapt …and then we start a fresh bright season
Dangerous to start thinking and speaking objectively!
You’re right and it was obvious before the season started, let’s not let the boss waste any more money on this failed team. The players change the dross just says the same.
Let him go to city. We aren’t a rival to them and won’t be before Sanchez retires. More of a kick in the teeth would be if he goes to Liverpool
To be honest – I don’t think it’s a failed team. I think our continuous problem are those +2/3 missing players. Just imagine our current squad with Oblak/Varane + a young talent like Malcom. I think that would easily be among the top10 sides in Europe
I shared your optimism at the start of this campaign and even till couple of months ago.
After a series of underwhelming performances, where the players don’t care, sitting comfortably whatever hapoens that the manager will cover them in public, we are massively dysfunctional – not something one says that about Wenger’s team.
Take yesterday’s game, we had a team made up of full internationals and the most promising youngsters from the current crop. Played a managerless team, on a terrible run of form, confidence and we ship 4 goals!
Sanchez and Ozil may be by far our best players at the moment but I don’t think they are our best players since 2004, i think both Fabregas and Van Persie were better.
But i digress, i have no idea how we’re going to score goals if he’s out of the team and really the best way forward is to replace the manager now and see if we can get someone in who can convince those two to sign new contracts.
I hear you @John C
FYI – I didn’t include those players because I counted them as being from that era.
At his best, Sanchez is one of that handful of players just below the very top (Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar), as good as anyone in England (De Bruyne, Hazard, Arguero), maybe better.
Contract aside, the ironic thing is he’s worth over 100 million in today’s market.
You’d struggle to find better numbers from anyone in world football over the last 4 years.
If you work for Yahoo and you see what progress Google are making. If Google wants you to work for them and make you their highest earner, what would you do?
replace ‘you’ with Sanchez, Yahoo with Arsenal and Google with MC.
More like Google = MC and Netscape = Arsenal
LOL!
I do think arsenal are closer to soundcloud than netscape though
Keown : That’s fine, you can go fella.
I think I agree with him.
If we somehow get the money we paid for him. Take it and take it now.
I just want him to go so this can all be over. His performances are not so good that they outweigh the detriment it has on the club. Squeeze as much money out of of City as possible and get a suitable replacement in (personally, I’d like Fekir).
I couldn’t give a fekir who we get or don’t get. The problem lies with the manager and how the team is coached and set up. Until that changes we will continue to suspect at the back and we still won’t build a team around the likes of ozil like we should have done.
Agree apart from we shouldn’t be looking to build around Ozil or any other individual player, we should be looking to build around a solid playing style. An identity that sadly we’ve lacked lately, especially when Ozil and Sanchez have been out of the side
I’d like anybody who can make us an 11 man TEAM again! I think Ozil is delaying signing until he’s sure he’s gone!
That…is an interesting hypothesis, actually.
It could be good for us, only if: 1) we replace him with a quality, ready-to-hit-the-ground-running forward (let’s be honest, it won’t be someone of equal quality to Alexis), and 2) the team benefits from the departure of this divisive figure by…playing as a team. There could be a ‘rallying’ effect here. Maybe Cohesion is the player we finally get!
I’d never thought I’d write that, but sell. I don’t even expect a replacement. I think we need to hit rock bottom to bounce back. I think we all know we need to write-off this season.
Our best 11 would defenitely be among the top3 candidates for the EL title.
And that would be one of the biggest European success in our history (+ a place in next year’s CL)
And so it begins :/
Please let this season be over already
See my comment above!
I believe this transfer window is going to be the most depressing one we have had. Even worse than when we signed Kallstrom on a free with a bad back. I suppose Citeh could put the bid in just to bolster their champions league squad.
The Kallstrom Window still makes me laugh. I can’t help it. It was just so Arsenal.
(I.e., desperately needing a strong central midfield signing, and ending up with an injured stop-gap.)
Good riddance. I don’t see why he wasn’t in the squad for Forest. Since he won’t sign a new contract he should play every game.
Then get injured and nobody will bother signing him!
Erm…he is leaving for nothing in a few months mate.
Regardless of whether he goes or not, why don’t we just splash the cash on Mahrez? If it’s true his price could be around 50 million, it seems fair in today’s market – complete player, great age, top quality.
Guess such target is “too obvious” for us to be interested.
Probably put in a cheeky £25million bid.
Reminds me of the good ole’ days when we were pretty much one top class striker short of having a squad actually capable of having a proper title run, so we came in with that cheeky 40m+1 pound bid just to keep the banter going.
Crazy to think the same amount of money gets you Ox nowadays.
I am so sick of this endlessly repeated nonsense about the Suarez bid. The issue was whether Liverpool would allow him to leave. Arsenal tested the purported “release clause,” and got an answer: clause or no clause, Liverpool would not let him go yet, and not to an English club. It had nothing to do with the extra pound.
mahrez will go to liverpool
Because Wenger doesn’t want to “kill” Iwobi’s career.
To be honest Iwobi is doing a good job of that himself. His last few games have been awful and I was at Forest yesterday, nuff said. He was better coming in from the left but like Walcott hasn’t progressed….
I agree but my point is we didn’t buy a Mahrez or Lemar type player in the summer to play alongside Sanchez and Ozil because Wenger didn’t want to put another player in front of him.
So what we have instead is a typical Wenger fudge, inadequate quality in the first 11 to leave space for an unprepared, out-of-his-depth youngster with overpaid, not good enough players like Walcott and Welbeck as back-up.
Signing Mahrez would be a big mistake. He [was] a great player for Leicester because they play a very counter-attacking style where he has heaps of room to be creative. For a team that usually has 60-70% his numbers would be terrible. And we saw that decline when teams started figuring Leicester out. Same for Vardy. The fact that Wenger made a bid for him shows what an utterly clueless and outdated coach he is.
I 100% disagree. Both Mahrez and Vardy declined because they stopped giving a shit. They weren’t supposed to win that title. It was like a stupid chav winning the lottery. They go completely off the rails because they don’t know what to do anymore. However, Mahrez still has it, is a good age and I would have him at Arsenal in a heartbeat. Not that we will sign him.
Wenger would have signed him already if he really wanted him.
Mahrez has looked very good at times, a wonderful talent with great vision, but has virtually disappeared in some matches that I have watched. And certainly any Arsenal supporter who has ever complained about Ramsey’s positional discipline or Walcott’s supposedly not tracking back would get much more of that with Mahrez.
Where is Santori when you need him lol jk
Selfish and arrogant as Sanchez but might do a job for a season and a half!
Just sack Wenger now so a replacement can have the rest of the season to evaluate players, put together a fixed formation & style.
Sell Ozil & Alexis for what you can and reinvest.
When Wenger goes it needs to be a clean break, no position upstairs & no input from him to annoint a successor, we need a new man with his own ideas and team. I do not want a yes man like Arteta.
It’s time for a revolution, let’s get it started early.
Well given the Ox went for 35m Sanchez surely is worth the extra 5m! Cue Theo to resurrect his Arsenal career in the second half of the season and finally become a beautiful Pieres/Henry Frankenstein finishing with 30 goals for the season! He than goes on to single handily pull England into this years WC Final with 10 goals securing the Golden Boot in the process! Alas England lose to Australia in the final after Kane skies his 5th penalty. Harry Kewell slots home after coming out of retirement to become Australia’s player manager! The Socceroos are the CHAMPIONS OF… Read more »
I want some of what you’re smoking.
It’ll cost you £40,000,000.01
“Get out while you can, Alexis!”
Fuck off while we can still make some money from you, Alexis!
Sign him and loan him back to us until the end of the season.
I don’t give a s**t about Alexis , so these stupid news and speculations about him are as worthless as himself , our club has greater problems right now and massive changes are needed , starting with sacking Wenger.
If he goes to City, he will almost certainly destabilise them. Fuckity bye!
If the offer comes, sell. Even if we don’t re-invest until the summer. The season isn’t exactly going to be spoiled. Whilst £40m may seem a lot for city to bid in January, it’s still a small amount for Sanchez in today’s market so I don’t think it’s beyond them.
I care only enough to put in the effort to say ‘I don’t care’…..
I doff my cap Sir! 🙂
I just hope wenger doesn,t buy anyone else in January, and he goes in the summer, so that the new manager can have what transfer money there is to buy the players he wants
Watch him go to City and become the player we know he can be, but with more consistency.
You have to wonder what certain players could become being trained and managed under someone else.
Who has genuinely improved over the last 2-3 seasons?
Szczeszny did. Oh wait…
Reasons for City buying him now? As you state they ‘could’ could get him on a free, Sanchez could also sign a pre contract with an non English club in the next few months. Also, City would probably have to pay a huge signing on fee in the summer, may as well stump up the cash now, makes no difference to them if the money goes to Arsenal or Sanchez’ agent.
The question is whether Sanchez wants to go now or in the summer. I suspect the latter.
50 million and he is all yours. Fucking Ross Barkley is 15 million. Why should we undervalue our player?
Barkley must be great in bed
At least he’ll come more than halfway up the bed!
Because in 6 months time he can join any club in the whole wide world for free?.
Arsenal finds itself in that “ideal situation” of having virtually no say in one of its star player’s future.
Sanchez, like any player entering the last 6 months of their contract, holds all the cards now and will only go if it’s convenient for him.
After his performances in the first half of this season, he would not be missed, so why not cash in? £60m for a full season, £30m for half; seems reasonable. It’s also not like we’d be selling him to direct competition…
It won’t happen but if we sell Sanchez now, Wenger and Gazidas should resign straight away. The decision making at this club is incredibly bad. What was the point of keeping a highly disruptive figure for six months? Should have sold and replaced in the summer but doing it now pretty much signals that we’ve given up on the season.
Here’s an idea, maybe buy the likes of Mahrez and/or Lemar and a couple of decent defenders not as replacements, but to show the likes of Sanchez and Ozil and us fans that we have some ambition?
That’s 200 million (plus wages). We don’t have that kind of money, given that (probably) losing Sanchez and Ozil for free is effectively writing-off 150 million.
But we do have that kind of money if you look at what we’ve got in the bank plus selling the deadwood (Theo et al.).
Not sure that’s true. Excluding debt service reserves, our cash balance is £144 million (source below). That basically gets you Lemar (£90 million, plus 5 years of salary at £150k, comes to just shy of £130 million). I just don’t see us recouping enough from deadwood sales to support the splurge you want (and we need).
https://twitter.com/swissramble/status/914760608800821248?lang=en
I am sure Arsenal Football Club could find the cash if they wanted to. Watch this space…:-(
“His departure could also only be justified if there was a quality replacement lined up” There is another reason, not one I agree with, but I can see the logic behind it. You have to ask…will Sanchez get us into the top 4? I’m not so sure anymore. He can huff and puff all he likes and score 4 goals, and we’ll just concede 5. It’s looking likely we may not get into the Top 4 even with Sanchez. Best chance is Europa, and can you say our performances have been convincing enough that we’re certain to win it? Un-bloody-likely.… Read more »
Even without ozil and Sanchez our squad isn’t terrible. Not as good as it could be but terrible? Not having that.
It’s relative.
Considering the goal (at least what’s said to us) is to win the Premier League, you have to compare the squad for it’s objectives.
And for its objectives, it’s an absolute shambles.
We got into the top 4 last season with samchez, then, did we?
Not sure if you’re trying to be funny, but I imagine you’re admitting that even at his best last season, we indeed still missed out on the top 4.
The only consolation is knowing that Arsene’s tenure is coming to an end, today we 1 day closer to the day he leaves
But how do any of us know when that actually is??!
I cant count down the days, when every other summer it jumps back up to two years again!
Personally would like to sell him. Not because of any performance issues but because of a couple of reasons 1) I am sick of thinking about it all the time, and reading about it all the time. I long for sweet relief. 2) I am up for something new… after some games this season I have been up for starting over again with a new group but when I calm down, i would just settle for something new. 3) I am not out for his blood by any means but I am struggling to enjoy even his good performances because… Read more »
This saga is now as boring as our football.
I have no faith in anyone at arsenal to make a correct decision. It’s almost as if wenger and Co think: this is the most logical thing to do. Let’s do the opposite. *complains when ‘gamble’ backfires spectacularly, rinse and repeat.
Just sell him get it over with and add some funds for the next manager/season as this one is a write off
Sell him get the cash buy Draxler persuade Ozil to sign. Personally think Ozil is far more important.
He is nt going to make the difference to a team as poor as our this season. If £40m is one the table (seems unlikely), it would be foolish not to take it for rebuilding once we change manager in the summer.
Doesn’t matter. If we can’t beat [insert PL makeweight here] when he’s in the side, and we aren’t going to make the top 4 with him in the squad and If he goes to Citeh, their performance relative to ours will be unchanged.
I agree with you 100%.
Guardiola famously benched half a billion euros worth of world class players during his time at Barcelona. One could argue the madness in that or he was just hoovering the market for talent to keep it from any rivals. Could be he’s trying to do the same here. He has the money at his disposal.
No could be’s about it. Its exactly what the big big big clubs do. they take the ebst players so others cant have them.
Chelsea had a squad on loan few years back that if they were a team could of been top 6 in EPL. Bayern have done it for eyars. The big 2 in spain. No surprises ManCity is jumping on the bandwagon.
What better way to improve your chances domestically then to take the ebst players from your rivals and weaken them.
Until we have a team of players that are committed to the club, nothing is going to change for the better. Let’s get him gone asap please and thanks for your endeavors Alexis, I will always remember your skillful puppy phase. x
Just go for F sake and take Wenger with you. This has been going on long enough now