It’s felt increasingly inevitable for quite some time now, but it’s being murmured that Alexis Sanchez might finally leave Arsenal for Man City before the end of the month.
According to Di Marzio, City have already reached a personal agreement with Sanchez over a £13million-per-season contract that will see him net a £15million signing-on bonus if he makes the move in January and a £30million bonus if he waits for the remainder of his Arsenal contract to elapse before making the leap in July.
The Guardian proffer that City are keen to push the transaction through in January and will gladly fork out £30million to Arsenal in order to expedite business, which is an awful lot of money for a player who will be a free agent in six months’ time.
When asked if Sanchez was likely to feature in Arsenal’s upcoming League Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Wednesday night, Arsene Wenger remained ominously noncommittal:
I have not decided yet. That will be decided today or tomorrow morning.
Wenger was then asked whether or not he expects the Chilean forward to depart the club before the end of the month, to which he responded:
I expect nothing. I am focused on tomorrow’s game. When solicitations happen, you respond to it.
At the moment, it’s very quiet.
While the spiel would suggest otherwise, it certainly feels like we’re moving toward a conclusion here.
Quite honestly, frittering away £30million-plus on Sanchez seems like overkill on City’s part. After all, they already have Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva, all of whom occupy similar positions and are several years younger than Sanchez, who turns 30 next year.
Still, they’ll be acquiring a fabulous talent who, in the right frame of mind, can win any given match on his lonesome.
City’s gain will most certainly be Arsenal’s sore, sore loss.