Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal will have to change the balance of their team if Alexis Sanchez leaves and confirmed, for the first time, that he held off selling the Chile international in the summer because he couldn’t secure a suitable replacement.
Speculation in the last 24 hours has claimed that Manchester United have joined Manchester City in attempting to lure the striker to the North-West in a deal worth around £25 million. The Blues came close to snapping up Sanchez on transfer deadline day in August but the move collapsed at the last moment when Arsenal failed to secure Monaco’s Thomas Lemar.
The Gunners risk losing Sanchez for free in the summer when his current contract ends.
Asked in his pre-Bournemouth press conference about whether he’ll find a like-for-like replacement, Wenger replied: “Replaceable? In the way, that do we find the same player? Certainly not, But there’s always a way to find a different balance.
“Sanchez is an exceptional player and if that happens [he leaves] we have to find a different balance in the team.”
Asked if he would hold off selling Sanchez in January if a suitable replacement wasn’t found, as was the case in the summer, Wenger replied: “Yeah, it’s the case now [as well]…you sum it up very well.”
On whether he’d like a quick resolution to the situation, Wenger added: “Yes, of course. It’s not the fatigue factor, it’s just I cannot tell you what I don’t know. I don’t want to give information that I cannot back up after. You’ll come back after and ask why did I say that.
“I like to be a bit vague. To use my entire experience of press conferences I don’t like to talk things that I cannot back up.”
Arsenal continue to be linked with Lemar and Bordeaux’s young Brazilian Malcom, could they be the key to a Sanchez move? We’ll wait and see.
Pls let everything happen faster then it normally takes…..
We are such losers. All summer Wenger said he wasn’t selling him, then with like 2 hours to go, we end up nearly shipping him off to City for like £100 million less then what he is worth. Wenger then reiterated when the summer window closed we are not selling him. Then here we are 12 days into January, and we are selling him depending on whether we can get a replacement in. If Wenger had anything about him, he would’ve stuck by his word and kept him till the summer. He should’ve of then used this window to bring… Read more »
Only reason he is being sold for less then market value is he only had 1 year left on his deal. If he was sold summer of ’16 it might have been less then the offer we got from City. only reason you think he’s worth that much is because how Neymar’s deal made the market crazy stupid.
@caligunner Yeah I know man, but it just bothers me so much how fragile we seem, and how soft our word is, and how easily we get bullied in the transfer market. As much as I hate them, but take the Mugsmashers as a prime example. All of their star players posture for a move and run their contracts down, but Liverpool always get them to sign an extension, and then they’re sold in 6 months time for huge sums. Why can’t we do that? Why didn’t someone get Alexis to sign an extension in the summer last year, under… Read more »
I think it’s a good point you make here and I’ve often wondered it myself but I suspect that the club do try to do this. They certainly protect players’ value before they go out on loan but getting them to sign a new deal, much like Chelsea do. What I would also say though is that those new contracts don’t come cheap, they require a big signing-on fee to cover the fact that the player will have less formal freedom of movement and that money could be spent elsewhere. One presumes that a player who has run down his… Read more »
But the FFP rules nobody lives within them anyway. Also if we had to pay an extra £5 million lets say to keep Alexis this season by raising his salary, which in turn allows us to then sell him for full market value this summer, which is easily £150M. That influx of £150M at the end of the season would more then balance the books out so we would be well within our FFP regulations anyway. Especially considering we have shipped off Gabriel, Coquelin, and hopefully Walcott by the end of the window so the wage bill would be well… Read more »
Actually most clubs do still follow the FFP rules in terms of breaking even etc, the issue with the rules is the creative ways that some clubs find to work around and undermine them. We don’t yet have any rich billionaire’s friend sponsoring our training ground for silly money. I think your value of £150m is very optimistic for a 29 year old who wants out (and has wanted out since the summer of 2016) but anyway, let’s say that that’s correct; we’d still need to come up with an awful lot more than £5m to make Alexis sign a… Read more »
Fuck FFP. If wenger hasn’t already learnt how toothless it is. If we spend over by 40-50m, we should be able to handle this and recoup over time. we have been MORE than frugal. The club is in dire need of a boost. We are losing two marquee names and if we replace with relative unknowns we are risking it. We are not in the same position of strength as when we brought in Henry. Personally the whole management of contracts and transfers has been poor because of Wenger’s sentimentality and ideals. He needs to be more pragmatic. 1) Keeper-… Read more »
Spot on Santori. The only silver lining I can try to paint you, is that if this season really does end in complete ignominy, Wenger might finally leave.
Wouldn’t that be the problem? Lets say he only wants to go to City but City with endless pockets will rather get someone else for lets say 100-150M. There is a point when Alexis isn’t worth it.
Why would he sign on when he doesn’t want to be here? Knowing in 1 year he’ll get huge sign on fee. Only way he would sign a 1yr extension would be knowing he is guaranteed to leave like Saurez did. Which wasn’t market value either.
I would say to United you can have him for 35m (release point at 30m) Then tell City they can have him for less bc its preferred destination at 30m (release price at 25m) Good enough money considering 29yr old with less than half year left on contract. I think Alexis has his mind fixated on Pep. He’s trying to prove something. Ozil is a different matter. We may have a slim sliver of hope extending on Ozil if we can convince him our rebuild when Sanchez is sold is going to be immediately competitive to our ‘rivals’. If not,… Read more »
I suppose the only positive is that Alexis is getting older, at 29 he hasn’t really got too many years left at the top of his game (especially with all the summers he’s had with no break); and if he goes to City well they can hardly get much better anyway can they……………………………
As good as he has been, he has also had flaws and honestly all these people saying we should keep him…we can do better than him.
BUT it depends if the club (Wenger) has the gumption to spend and go for the top end players or simply put a band aid/risk on potential.
Lets just say if we keep him and await to the summer, we are asking for a big shit sandwich. We will risk two players going for free…BOTH our creative forces all at once. Prices will be higher and there is also impact of impending World Cup which will delay sales and again put our start to season in predictable danger. Plus there are other areas of concern we need to replace and reinforce. We need to tackle one of the big name replacements now. It is in fact imperative. We are no longer rivals to City (for this season… Read more »
So you prefer that Arsenal reveal all in press conferences and show our hand? That is smart. I’d rather the club keep their cards close to their chest, even if that means annoying some fans who will feel “betrayed” when a clear want away player, finally departs!
I don’t feel cheated or betrayed. I just think arsenal should have done a better job of sorting this out. I didn’t see coutinuo leaving Liverpool for next to nothing and he certainly didn’t leave on a free. The way arsenal conduct their business in the transfer market is a joke and everyone knows it.
The failing is in not pushing the players out when it’s clear they want to go. This has been the case with Alexis for well over a year. It’s correct we should have replaced him first thing this summer. Then we could have put him on the market. But the real problem with Alexis is it’s pretty clear where he wanted to go and City did the shit thing of gaming it until the last minute trying to put us in a bad position. In an ideal world we would have picked up his replacement mid summer, and if City… Read more »
Show our hand – Like United now hijacking City’s bid for Alexis. They never understand how the market works. Most people are use to fix price purchasing is the problem. Remember how we captured Ozil? No media outlet even knew about it till it happened. Red faced, they branded it a “panic buy” which unfortunately many of our gullible fan base bought into. Wenger had to wait for the Bale deal to complete for Madrid. Which meant he had to keep it very quiet. Meanwhile, soft pressure was exerted by Per on our behalf. When we pulled the trigger it… Read more »
But it was equally frustrating when Arsenal automatically chose the option that made them the most money and then didn’t reinvest. Hopefully with Sven and Raul coming in, things will get a bit more slick and we’ll find a balance between the two.
Wenger is one of the best at buying talent. Its when he tries to penny pinch that things go wrong. What Sven and Raul bring is more hands to the job so it can be done quicker. but the brains behind it will remain Arsene’s. What we do need is for the higher ups to convince Wenger that he has more latittude to bring in the higher premium talents (creative/technical players) From a marketing stand point, we have taken a big hit last two seasons. We need to also consider shirt sales as a revenue platform. Our commercial operations still… Read more »
Is Huntelaar still available?
Why are we selling him to Manchester City or Manchester United? Our rivals. Sell him abroad! If he goes to those clubs at the end of the season when he is free to sign for whoever he likes – fine. But to sell him, our best player, to a rival is just crazy. It is Robin Van Persie all over again and you would have thought the club would have learnt from that.
As much as i hate to admit it, City aren’t really our rivals atm. They are far apart in terms of quality and of course finances. Utd maybe closer to us but either way don’t think we would get any money if we sell abroad as they can sign Alexis on a pre contract agreement if i’m not wrong.
Let’s be honest. With our without Sanchez, our rivals are way ahead of us at the moment, so selling him to them is not going to make us worse off because we’re already in 6th place and like a billion points off of first.
Secondly, Sanchez hasn’t been his best this season bar one or two games. I would rather see him go (to whoever, makes no difference) and Arsenal find a good replacement who actually wants to play for the team rather than himself.
Selling our best player (and he is a world class player) to a rival is not going to help ‘close the gap’. I just don’t understand the logic, money or no money. It is humiliating.
Doesn’t seem like you understand contracts either. If you are humiliated because Alexis is sold to a Manchester club, the rest of your life will be very difficult.
There is only 1 club he wants to play for. You can’t force him to go someplace he has no interest in going. That club actually is wiling to pay 30M we should take it.
The point is that he’ll be free to join anyone in June and we only have an offer from City (unless you believe the cr*p about Man Utd – I don’t personally). So he’ll join them and strengthen them anyway, it’s really just about whether we keep him for about 4 more months of football or take the money that’s on the table and use it for something worthwhile. He could get injured next week so we also might not get a full 4 months and it’s also quite feasible that we won’t get the ‘Full Alexis’ anyway given his… Read more »
Mootilated I agreed with that 100% the guy want to go let him go do a deal with United and get the guy they are offering to booster out midfield and then get Maharez to replace him that is a better option then force him to stay e does not want to be there and his teammate know that
If you take Sanchez out of the team we would be sitting at mid table.
Nah, when you get rid of ‘that guy’ in the office everybody’s mood picks up and frequently their performances also.
The abroad needs to have interest and Alexis needs to have interest in abroad also. This isn’t FIFA
He doesn’t wanna go overseas. He made it plain clear he wanna join up with Pep as he turned down Utd. So if we don’t sell him to them, he’s gonna leave at end of season anyway.
I’m fine with a player leaving if his heart is no longer here, we just need a decent replacement and we need to move fast.
Exactly this. No player is bigger than The Arsenal and if you don’t want to play for us then p!ss off. He asked to leave us in the summer of 2016 and has been angling for a move ever since. His heart isn’t at the club and maybe that fact is demoralising to his teammates who do want to play for us?
Would Pep Guardiola sell De Bruyne or Aguero to Arsenal, in any circumstances? The answer is no. Yet we do – we sell our best assets to rivals. Only we would do that.
If Arsenal had an unlimited budget, were top of the league by a mile, and could afford to spend 40m on reserve GKs, then I think Pep would sell!
Stop with this strengthening a rival bullshit, we should be concentrating on strengthening Arsenal.
It’s this lack of self confidence that has lead us down the path we’re on.
The question has always been is keeping Sanchez in the best interests of Arsenal? and the answer has been for the last 6 months a resounding no.
For Arsenal to once again be rivals with City and Utd and we need to change the defensive mentality we have otherwise we’re doomed to the continued second guessing ourselves.
If he refuses then we are stuck with a player that we can at least get something for.
We should have sold him in the summer in hindsight. AW had a full season to convince him to sign and he didn’t. He should have been sold regardless if a high caliber player was lined up or not.
They are not our rivals. We are a former top club in a slump who need to offload a few players. Some of them for not being good enough and others (Sanchez) for a piss poor attitude. We are also in dire need of fresh blood, players as well as a manager, to try and save this ship from sinking further. Never mind the top two teams. We are nowhere near them this season nor do we have any hope of getting there. This is a salvage situation now. And besides, Sanchez is 29 and about to join what is… Read more »
They can only fit 11 players into their team (Citeh I’m talking about, Utd not an option for him I’d imagine). They have exceptional players in those positions who offer more cohesion than Sanchez does. I happen to think Sanchez is one of the best in the world ability wise and for attacking threat, but his selfish approach will cause any team a headache (e.g. Barcelona and Arsenal). If there is a chance to cash in on a want away player with 6 months to go in place of quality coming in, then maybe it is worth a punt. Arsenal… Read more »
Stop listening to those fools on Arsenal Fan TV.
I respect Wenger for the way he handles these situations. Too bad the club puts him in these positions. Way too often for my taste.
AW is not without blame himself. He dithering, indecision and hesitation has cost the club a lot more than the embarrassment he may or may not feel due to club’s position on players.
I think we’d have increased our chances of keeping him by signing some other top quality players rather than going back to shopping in Tesco. Having said that, the club cannot force players to sign contract extensions so it’s hard to see what more the club could do in terms of Alexis. Sell him in the summer and they’d be accused of weakening the team for money, keep him and they get the blame for putting Wenger in this position. I really do wish our Board would show a bit more ambition in the transfer market but sometimes it feels… Read more »
If Wenger himself comments on a transfer then Sanchez to ManC is pretty much a done deal then!
With the BBC are also reporting about Malcolm then he seems to be replacement.
So in terms of balancing the team, hope Wenger means that he is somehow going to sell Walcott to Mourinho and get Mkhitaryan in exchange. There are many Mourinho rejects that have done very well elsewhere.
Sanchez is going and we should be trying to sign a replace ASAP regardless of when he goes. If we can get money from a sale to go towards that signing all the better.
All this transfer movement now all seems a little too late for my liking and should have happened in the summer.
What Wenger learnt about Coquelin and Walcott in the last 6 months that he didn’t already know is anyone’s guess
I agree on Alexis – i’d have sold him last summer – but the position is not so straightforward with the other two you mention. Things change. In terms of Coquelin, in the summer Wilshere’s position looked bleak, Maitland-Niles hadn’t impressed in the first team and he himself was a fairly regular starter. That isn’t the case now, so you move with the circumstances. As for Walcott, we knew Oxlade-Chamberlain was on his way out in the summer, Welbeck was regularly injured and the whole Alexis situation was up in the air right at the end of the window. Plus… Read more »
Honestly, I don’t get the AMN love in, i think he’s been OK but not outstanding. He hasn’t even played central midfield yet despite Willock getting several matches there this season and also looking pretty average. So i reserve judgement as to whether he’s any sort of solution. As for Coquelin and Walcott, i think we all knew how disposable they were before a ball was kicked this season. I think these sales are the result of a combination of two things, firstly it’s the cost of not selling Sanchez and Ozil in the summer and secondly Wenger moving on… Read more »
I think its the potential of what they can be. Especially AMN seemingly being mature and calm. I haven’t been as impressed with Willock either but he is only 18 so I’ll reserve judgement on him. I absolutely agree with Walcott. I don’t understand if AW knew he was going to use the 343 formation 80% of the time what was the point in keeping Theo? They both knew he wasn’t going to be effective in that formation. It showed last season when he wasn’t used at all in the last few matches after the international break. He should have… Read more »
But I thought Laca plays in the middle. Where would Malcom play?
in middle, after 70 mins every game.
Malcolm is a left footed , right winger like mares or can play wide left.
We should sign a top midfielder and a CB. We can worry about replacing Sanchez in the summer. We need another top midfielder to support Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey. We need someone like Santi.
we should not buy too many players until after AW leaves this summer.
Malcom will not be enough. Arsenal need an additional forward…………and a midfielder, and a defender, and someone in goal, plus a few decent lads on the bench.
With malcom for sanchez, we NEED a dm and a rwb, the rest of the squad is covered in terms of bodies.
Gone past being interested now.
Any which way Arsenal will still have a terrible season and he (Wenger) will still be in charge making the same mistakes.
Makes no difference…
I’d be astonished if he goes to United. Why would he want to jump from Arsenal, a club that has no chance of winning any competition that City are in to United, a club that has no chance of winning any competition that City are in? I could understand if he were 25 and moving to a club for a longer term project but realistically he’s got about 2-3 good years in him before he’s peaked. United aren’t going to overcome City in that time.
He’ll either join City this window for a fee or next Window for a free.
We really should of identified a replacement the minute there was a hint of him not extending his contract. The summer balls up of last minute dealings should inspire wenger to move quickly and end this pantomime.
The replacement in the summer was Thomas Lemar now its Malcom who.. Great
Get both. Easy.
Malcolm is a wonderkid on Fifa and FM and has been for the last 2 years, so he MUST have something about him…
Although Fran Merida and Henri Lansbury were also wonderkids when we had them on the books…
Replacing Sanchez with Malcom?
I mean, he seems like a good prospect, but come on, this shit ain’t serious…
Also, I’m guessing no one will replace Theo, the same way we’ll have no replacement for Coq (and no, AMN isn’t a solution). Pathetic.
I don’t think you can really rely on Sanchez for the rest of the season. His output has been poor so far, and only likely to get worse.
I’d say that if we can get a hungry to impress player with plenty of potential get them in, they’ll get an opportunity to impress and could really add something. With Walcott on the way out I’d actually get two, maybe Lemar or Fekir as well (they seem ‘gettable’ at the right price).
‘Poor’? Really?
So yeah, maybe he looks more pissed of than ever and maybe he really doesn’t give a total of 100% of himself like we got used to, BUT 7 goals and 3 assists this season (league only) is more than anyone else in our squad has done.
And saying that 2-3 players will come in is a joke. Not because I don’t want this to happen, but because we’ve been in this situation SO MANY TIMES BEFORE and AW still hasn’t strengthened our squad enough
Walcott has 4 goals and 4 assists this season
Theo has 0 goals and 0 assists in th PL, to which I was reffering when presenting Sanchez’s stats…
Lots of reports of Sanchez leaving to win trophies.
Hope he’s pleased when he “wins” his premier league medal this summer (assuming he gets at least 5 sub appearances) that was already sealed before he arrived. That’s not winning that’s just getting paid.
Anyway, good luck to him and thanks for the good times. Onwards and upwards for the Arsenal, always stronger with players that want to be here.
I might be in the minority, but I don’t think we really need to replace Sanchez this window. There are other areas the money could be spent usefully
Maybe starting with replacing the manager first
I’d say the Lemar signing is 50/50
50:50 in that he will either sign or not sign
“I like to be a bit vague..”
Really? I didn’t notice..
At the end of the day you can’t make anyone sign a deal, I except arsene to say he’s not for sale!! That’s what everyone says. I personally believe he should be sold abroad or he stays til the end of his contract because with him we’ve got more chance of salvaging what’s left of this season
Wenger had all Summer to get a replacement in and has had all Fall to develop options for an alternative plan and yet again it sounds like we won’t cash in on a player we’ll lose for nothing in May because he still can’t find a replacement.
If I was Man City I wouldn’t pay a dime for him, they have already won the league and they can get him for free in the summer!
It’s really up to US well Wenger, if we want some money for him which is questionable because he should have been sold in the summer!
Malcom and Mahrez for Walcott and Sanchez would be a lovely outcome
This is the managers way of saying “if you’re going to make an offer for him, don’t leave it until the last day of the window like you did in the last transfer window!”.
Spend. we were frugal 3 summers ago having really only spend on Cech. Right now we are losing 1 potentially both our most creative players. These aren’t Ox potential type players but players who deliver key form to the team. If we penny pinch and gamble on players coming in who have good potential but at risk of adaptation time, we are asking for further trouble. Not only that but our allure as a club has taken a massive hit in recent seasons. If anything-else the top echelon at the club must understand money and branding. We are in grave… Read more »
Noise looks like United may be nipping in.
35-40m is a good deal for us.
But the replacement worries me.
Not that I don’t think Malcolm is a talent or can be great potential but I think its a risk. Far better to get a known quantity like Mahrez and/or (if we should sell Walcott) a transformational player like Draxler, both of whom are “moveable”this January
That’s been the eternal problem with Wenger. His distrust of the transfer market. I agree with you that we desperately need to elevate the technical ability of our attack, but I don’t believe Wenger is the manager to turn this clubs trajectory around. I would prefer any signings made now and in the summer to be done with the next manager in mind. Speaking of which, who would you like to see as next Arsenal boss?
For God’s sake stop dithering. Sell him to City (slightly, just slightly lesser cunts than ManU), and move on. Dragging this out and keeping a player who wants to leave and by all accounts is at least a little divisive in the dressing room is doing no good.
More noise about potential replacement (with grain of salt that it is media reported and they often get it wrong) – Malcolm.
Apparently Spurs are pulling out of similar pursuit bc asking price is 45m for a 20yr old that has to adapt to PL.
Which is same price more or less as Mahrez.
What I find funny is how sensitive we are as fans. Would you offer a player who is going to be 30 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR £300K/week on a 5 years contract?! We have seen the best of Sanchez. Just like when we sold RVP…we have been very lucky to have had him in his prime but do you expect him to be firing in 4 years…while still paying him £300K/week? Infact, in two years, he would be much less of a player than he is today. Also, which team in the world would buy a player that is going… Read more »
Sell alexis to Man Utd and use the 35 million plus some coq. Money to buy malcon. We get Henrique mykiterian as well, who can play wide or at ten in case ozil or jack injured. Think of arsenals aims which is top four.
When we sold r.v.p. People said wouldn’t get top four, but money re I invested in giroud and santi who got the points to top four. Simple done.
A cheeky £20m for Sturridge would be OK with me – buy him with the funds from Walcott and pocket some change too?
Haha! Fool. There is ZERO chance of finding a replacement even half as good in the transfer window. Oh and there is even less chance of us paying the money if we do find him.