It's got to the stage where it just feels like blackmail to me now, and, if his heart's not really in it, I'm happy for him to go.
That said, if Sanchez is going to Barca for €22m + Jeffren, that will set the benchmark for wingers this summer, and Hazard will undoubtedly go for a LOT more than Wenger would ever pay for a player, so it's hard to know where to look. I'm not going to put any stock in Ricky Alvarez doing a job there, but looking around Europe it's hard to come up with names who I think might be suitable replacements at a 'Wenger' price. Young's the only name I can come up with from the Premiership, though we don't seem to have any interest in him, and I think he's a step down for Nasri anyway. Kagawa and Gotze look the business in Germany, though they're young and inexperienced, and would take a while to settle - we'd probably get half a good season from both, which is exactly what we got from Nasri last year, but that's probably an area we ought to look to improve on. So where next? Mata? Probably too expensive, and though I like him as a player he'd be a bit of a gamble. Navas? Reyes mk II. Honda? Again, like him as a player from what I saw at the World Cup, but is he really going to produce that form over a 45 game season?
