Yesterday the Guardian ran a story about how Man City were ‘increasingly confident of signing Alexis Sanchez for a potential fee in the region of £50m.’ They say that the Arsenal man is keen to play under Pep Guardiola again, and that Arsene Wenger is aware of his desire to go there.
That he might want to leave should come as no surprise to any Arsenal fan, and while this is a post that has the potential to come back and bite me on the arse, I would say that I am confident we will not sanction this deal.
Taking it all into account, his contract situation, our history of selling players heading into the final 12 months of the season, the money on offer, I just can’t see how Arsenal as a club can justify it in any way. Let me outline the reasons why this deal should not happen, and why I feel that we should keep him even if he refuses new terms.
1 – If we sell our best player to a direct rival, we might as well give up. If the FA Cup win went some way to repairing the significant cracks that have appeared between fans and the manager/board, this would reopen them in a big way. There is nothing that Arsene Wenger, Stan Kroenke or Ivan Gazidis could say that would make this deal in any way acceptable.
Yes, we could immediately reinvest the money, we could go large on a big signing, but the bottom line is we’ll be seen as a soft touch that has strengthened one of the other top teams as we’ve weakened ourselves. The club must know the reaction to this would be as visceral as anything we’ve ever seen, and I don’t think they’re ready to open themselves to that amount of anger.
As a club they have proven themselves indifferent to the feelings of fans in the past, but they would be very well advised to pay attention this time around. It’s time to show some backbone. You don’t finish 5th then sell your best player if you’re serious about getting back to where you want to be.
2 – Ask yourself this: Would you have more confidence in an Arsenal team with Alexis Sanchez in it, or an Arsenal board with £50m extra to spend? Exactly. Even if the Sanchez fee went on something outrageous like Kylian Mbappe, you’d be hard pressed to say it will have improved us for the season ahead, and that’s got to be our goal this summer.
Mbappe is a tremendous prospect but just 18 years old. To expect him to fill the boots of a man with 30 goals and 14 assists last season is just not realistic.
Basically, Alexis Sanchez is worth more to us on the pitch next season that £50m in the bank now. If you want to take the cash and try replace him be my guest, but I’d have little confidence in the current set-up to do that.
3 – As a player I would have no problem with Sanchez staying into the final 12 months of his contract. His character means he will always give you 100%, there’s no chance of him slacking off, and should things go well next season after we spend well this summer (hahaha, I know!), then perhaps there’s a chance of persuading him to sign a new contract.
If not, we allow a 29 year old player – who will have had four years of non-stop football since he joined us (four summer tournaments) – to leave and get the big money move he wants via a free transfer, the signing on fee and all that. We can wish him the best as he’ll have done his best for us and fulfilled the terms of his contract. There can’t be any anger directed at him if he does that, and if he goes to Man City then, there’s not much we can do about it.
