As sure as night follows day, football’s vulture-culture means that high profile players who are angling for summer moves start to do the dance with the press.
This evening, from France, come stories that PSG have opened talks with representatives of Alexis Sanchez over a move to Paris at the end of the season.
The Chilean striker has been the subject of much speculation over the last 6 months, with every move he makes analysed more than Sting in that really creepy song about how he’ll be watching you.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if he did want to get away, but he still has 12 months left on his current contract, and Arsene Wenger said last week he was confident both Sanchez and Mesut Ozil wanted to stay at the club (stop laughing down the back).
RMC report that the first moves between Alexis’ people and PSG have taken place, and they quote an unnamed ‘confidant’ of the player who said, “Alexis is sensitive to the Parisian interest and the PSG project.”
They seem to think more talks will take place this month and that with Chelsea also interested, Arsenal would be open to a sale around the €50m mark to stop him going to another Premier League club.
Doubts about his future have been exacerbated by a disciplinary issue earlier this year which ended up badly for the Arsenal manager, and stories emerging from sections of the press to try and downplay the 28 year old’s contribution.
The fact is, when a player has 22 goals and 13 assists, nobody’s really interested in spurious stats about how far he runs.
Anyway, this looks likely to become something of a saga, and if our Poo-o-Meter was working we’d give this a fairly low poo rating, but it’s not working (it’s all blocked up) so we can’t.
What you could do in the meantime is listen to today’s Arsecast Extra. It’s good for your soul.
If he goes to PSG and we are also in danger of losing Ozil, I would plum for Pastore in exchange.
Then compete for Mahrez. Maybe Mbappe as well (sell Walcott)
For me, PSG is such a lazy choice for a career footballer. Walk the league title and get to the last eight of the champions league and it’s been another great campaign. If he goes from Arsenal to PSG he’s taking the cowards way out. Stay and fight, prove you’ve got as much passion and loyalty professionally as you do on the field.
Agree (the French league is weaker) but I think if he goes there they are better equip to compete in CL (money aside).
That said, they did finish (barely just) behind us in table…so may be it is about money.:D
But if the club and management aren’t really fighting for anything then it all feels a bit futile if you aren’t in love with the club like us fans.
The summer after he signed we didn’t buy a single outfield player. The only club in Europe to do that, we only brought in Czech even though we clearly needed players.
That sends the wrong signals and it probably makes a player think he would rather be wining some titles and pushing in the CL rather than fight for a club whose board and owner just don’t care
I think the problem is Alexis wants £250k per week that Ivan/Arsene will not grant
Listen up dude. Most of his career is over, he’s reaching the final 5years as a world class player. Of course he wants a club that can offer higher wages and guaranteed titles, and also a much bigger chance at winning cl. PSG’s goal is to win the cl, and they go all in to win it. We on the other hand seem to be content with participating, and winning it would be nice but not realistic.
“Walk the league title and get to the last eight of the champions league and it’s been another great campaign” (PSG) vs Walk the top four and get to the last sixteen of the champions league and it’s been another great campaign (unnamed club). Not that PSG and the unnamed club are walking the league title and top four these days…
If I’m taking a player from PSG it’s di Maria or Verratti. Verratti would be the perfect Cazorla replacement. Great long balls, vision, and he’s the only player I’ve seen wiggle himself out of danger the way Cazorla does. Plus he’s a killer tackler.
What about Draxler?
Just signed him but he doesn’t look too settled in yet.
We could shuffle him into the hole or play him wide, he will enjoy more playing time with us and can develop further.
You didn’t watch their cup final Draxler bossed it.
Apart from one Jack Wilshere.
If there was any justice in the world PSG would poach manager and player together. Let some other benighted set of fans agonise about their dance of death.
I want reality to be more like ProEvo, where the names were all made up and there’s no people to fall out of love with.
100% resigned to losing him in the summer anyway, so I genuinely dont care where he goes, or for what cost, provided we don’t sell him to anyone else in the Premier League.
I think if we sell him to Chelsea, I am genuinely done with this club and football – I will not be able to take it seeing him win a league title or anything else for Chelsea.
Goodbye Mr. Goober
Agreed. He will almost certainly go. But if it is PSG or Juve, I can take that. If he rolls up at Stamford Bridge, that will be final confirmation of our relegated status. It would be Ashley Cole, times ten, in terms of grief and frustration.
wenger said he will risk loosing the player rather than sell him . and taking consideration of alexis quotes where he said he’d like to finish his contract at arsenal i dont think it is a certainity that we will loose alexis this summer . but it is a big risk as his preferred option would be to stay in london to join chelsea .
How about we just sell everyone and start again….Good
As long as he doesn’t go to a PL rival and we get more than we paid for him I don’t think we can complain. We will miss him for sure, but he deserves to be playing in the highest echelons of world football and unfortunately we do not currently fill that criteria.
Neither do PSG
At least they show some ambition with managers. Unai Emery is a very good manager and Barca’s win over them at the Nou Camp was made possible by some shocking refereeing decisions. No matter, they may well ship him out at the end of the season. Doubt that will be the case at Arsenal. No other manager in the world except AW would be allowed to decide his own departure date. Sad times.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he were linked to all and sundry with more than a tenner in the bank. We know it’s likely that unless he signs a new deal, the likelihood of him leaving this summer, or next for free is inevitable. This is not a Suarez situation where the player wanted out, but had a few years on his contract. We are much further along than that. Im not really sure which way I want the club to go. Sell him and hope they it doesn’t bit us in the Arse(nail) later. Watch him walk the door… Read more »
If we get Cavani, why not ? Alexis will not stay and if prevented will be a disgruntled player. Why stop him ? Sell him very expensive and buy a prolific striker or a prolific winger.
As good a player that Cavani is, his misses have a hilarious twist at the end… I’m not sure if we can add more hilarity to our situation.
And he’s 30.
Wait. What? The great psg project? You mean the one where you spend billions of euros and still blow a four goal lead against uefalona?
It’s obvious he’s leaving. Sell him to the highest bidder and be done with it.
This makes perfect sense to me. Might as well get the best deal we can out of this situation.
Couldn’t we just pay him what he wants?
That would mean Arsenals owner actually cares about trophies and not just being good enough to compete.
Until Stan actually proves it I’m just going to accept the fact that we will always sell off our best players because we don’t want to pay market value for them or close enough.
gotta get yourselves a squatty potty #PooMeterFixerUpperGuy
I might be in the minority, but I think it’ll be more difficult to replace Ozil’s creativity than Alexis goals and “energy”. I love Alexis and I always dreamt of us signing him the first time I watched him at Udinese, but sometimes he holds on to the ball for too long and slows down our play. I think Ozil is the better team player regardless of what you think of his defensive contributions. Personally I’d keep Ozil and sell Alexis if we can get Lacazette/Belotti/Morata AND a wide forward like Reus. We need more players with technical ability just… Read more »
In theory, yes, but actually Alexis have been more creative than Mezut, and with more energy, goals, assistance’s, tacles, and everything you can imagine as well.
On the other hand, Arsenal is no longer a top club every great player wants to sign in. It´s more probably to get some forgotten class player still shinning on a small clubs or a youngster diamond, not discovered yet.
What about Griezmann? Any thruth to the rumours about him feeling restless at Atletico?
LOL – he’s going to PSG, ManU or someone that will pay $100M +
…. and somewhere where they have a credible story about winning something.
A commentator said yesterday: Ozil have good feet but not a big heart. We want players with big heart willing to die on the pitch.
Let’s ignore Ozil’s lack of defensive contributions. it’s his lack of bottle in big games that gets me. Chelsea away – huge chance just before ht at 0-1. Bayern away – perfect free kick position at 0-1 & one v one on Neuer at 1-1. All three attempts on goal were awful.
You get excused from defending you have to produce. He doesn’t.
My big fear is not keeping Ozil : It’s trying to find someone willing to pay a big fee for him. I don’t think we’ll fond anyone.
He is a great player. But if his heart is not in it, move on. We lost plenty of great players and we replaced them with other great players. As long as he doesn’t move to anyone in the premier league. Also he should know that we did make him a better player as his stats will tell you. What we did like about him the most, the first two seasons especially, was his humblness. Has he lost his way this season and maybe needs a snickers because he is turns into a diva when he’s hungry.
Why woudn’t you just sell him to the highest bidder? Why would any non-Prem club like PSG pay top $ for guy they know all the Prem clubs are going to be excluded from the process.
Its been going downhill every 2-3 year cycle. Alexis and Ozil now, Who’s next? the star players are what makes the club special. We only really have 2-3 stars when other major clubs have 6-7. Its only going to get worse.
This is getting very boring (already)
Please let him go… that’d free our game.
The Sting song and the laughing at the back are the kinds of laughter that are precious in these dark times. Thanks so much blogs, i really mean it. It goes without saying that losing Sanchez will be a blow for us, but its not a tragedy either. He is a great player, but his ego has gone way too up. He holds the ball for way too long, makes bad decisions while attacking, gets himself surrounded by opponents and thus loses the ball or makes a bad pass… he thinks he’s the best player ever and so he wants… Read more »
I’ll always support Arsenal but it gets so hard as you realize we are one of the last top clubs a top talent wants to come play at. Wages are always lower then our competition. We seem to always be bargain hunting because we can’t outbid Chelsea, Man C or U, Barca, Real. Why would any top player come here if one of those are pursuing you?
Don’t believe the hype.
So sick of listening about Sanchez there are a lot better players than him so bye bye Sanchez.
yeah and they play at other top clubs that pay more then ours.
if they aren’t at top clubs they will do anythign to avoid Arsenal unless they are last big club standing.
So, it’s Wenger,Alexis and Ozil to PSG. Best break-up ever.
Sell to the highest bidder outside England before he leaves on a free. Same with Ozil. I’ll miss Alexis, Ozil not so much
Why does everyone want to see him to a club outside of the Prem? If I’m PSG why would I pay top $ for him? Which looks like the only big club outside of England looking at him as Barca and RM are loaded at his position. If you don’t allow the Prem clubs to bid, not only does it suppress his value even more it will allow a club like PSG to offer less knowing they have leverage.
I’ll miss the goals for sure, but not how many times he losses possession per match.
Hilarious watching everyone getting all “don’t want him anyway” He’s the only shining light in this clusterfuck of a club at the moment. He deserves the salary he’s asking for more than anyone else in the team, and it’s a sad indictment on the board that they’d rather lose him and spend the summer trying to find a replacement than change their outdated wage structure. There are many many areas in the squad that need to be focused on this summer. Sanchez shouldn’t be one of them. It’s like constantly buying second hand supercars on the cheap but refusing to… Read more »
Don’t believe it just about the money.
A bigger factor probably is the likelihood of no Europe and no chance of winning the league again next season.
It’s just all so fucking tedious. Every single summer. It started with Paddy, back in the day. Every single year. If you are at Arsenal and play well you are a ‘target’ for every bastard, and the press will bang on and on about it.
100 million euros
What we need is a replacement for Santi.
Ozil didnt play that badly during Man City. Many good moments; that back heel for Sanchez before he was tackled, that quick turn and shot with his right leg, that corner for Mustafi equaliser, couple of good through passes. He also worked hard to close down man City players…couple of times winning back the ball in our half. Sanchez instead lost a few balls and in dangerous areas as well…one in particular which resulted in a header by Auguero that luckily Ospina saved.
So my point…..we can loose Sanchez, coz he is more replaceable, than Ozil’s creativity and passes.
Gives the ball away too much for my liking but worryingly for us is still one of our best players.
His heart doea not seem to be at Arsenal so I would have no problems in replacing him.
For the position we are at the moment the salaries being mentioned for.him and oxil are a joke.
If he doesn’t want to be here then flog him to the highest bidder. Sick to death of tantrum throwing players who don’t clearly want out. The club will go on. About time we started acting like “The Arsenal” for fuck sake and not pandering to spoilt twats.
If any players want out, I reckon we should only accept offers from Chinese clubs willing to pay top dollar. If they want out, we should be looking to get the best deal possible for the club.