Did Arsenal just play Man City over Alexis Sanchez transfer?

The transfer of the Arsenal and Chile international star Alexis Sanchez was one of the biggest stories of the summer window and it was widely expected to finally happen on transfer deadline day. After saying all summer that he would not sell our star striker it looked like Arsene Wenger was going to give in to the wishes of Alexis and accept a bid from our Premier League rivals.

In fact, it is being reported by The Sun that the Gunners had said yes to an offer thought to be worth around £60 million. People from the Etihad were in Chile to seal the deal ahead of Chile´s home World Cup qualifier against Paraguay and all was about to be donme when Arsenal pulled the plug.

City are fuming apparently, altogether now aaahh, and Pep Guardiola is said to be considering reporting us but do not expect that to happen as we have no obligation to sell any player and can change our minds if we want. I bet Sanchez is not happy either, but did Wenger do things this way and leave it all to the last minute on purpose.

The reason for us pulling out is reported as being our failure to sign Thomas Lemar despite a huge deadline day offer, but surely we already knew that Monaco would not sell, at least not in this window, especially with Mbappe signing for PSG to boost their money from player sales even further.

I think Wenger knew the Lemar transfer would not happen but making the bid gave him the chance to keep Alexis without denying the striker’s wishes outright. What do you think Gooners?

Bob.

38 Comments

  1. I personally would have hated seeing him in a city top. I thought our days of selling to rivals were over! After the ox apparently not. They’ll probably come back in for him in January. How many players do city need!! They have plenty going forward!! As for Lemar… I think Arsene has run out of dirt to dish on players, as that proves he can no longer make them join us! Still amazed at Lacazette joining us!!

    1. im not sure we should be seen to lament “ox chambo leaving” and in terms of countless players to have ever don the shirt take a minute to rank where he figures. as he aspires to be like gerrard let him try to emulate his goals, iv seen nothing that suggests he will.

      1. Hey I’m not too gutted about ox leaving us, just not very happy about the way he played against his new team on Sunday, a complete headless chicken, then jump ship & join them! I can’t see him playing week in week out up there. But I do think Klopp will manage him a lot better than Arsene did. Don’t think he’ll get a very warm reception when he comes back to the Emirates

    2. Many things have gone wrong in this transfer window but for me alexis isnt one of them. unlike in the past when wenger sold our best players because of a greedy board(e.g nasri said that wenger told him he wouldn’t be sold and be replacing cesc on friday and he was shocked to know the club had accepted an offer for him on monday) or for personal reasons like van persie sold because of ferguson personal intervention and van persie conversation with wenger.

      We know that
      1. sanchez wanted to go
      2. the greedy board wouldnt have refused 60m
      so it must have been wenger blocking the transfer. if sanchez goes to city on a free next season at least we know arsenal refused to sell key player to a rival( ox isnt a key player )

      1. that said i still want wenger out, a man how great he is eventually decline and while some accept it and retire, some become arrogant and delirious. wenger wont stop by himself, arsenal is everything to him and he has no real life outside so even he is loved,respected and will probably have a statue he needs to be pushed out or upstairs in the board where his influence and reputation can help the club while another handles the coaching.

        The sooner the better before he demolishes all the good he was done to Arsenal and his legacy is forever stained.

      2. Sanchez could have added that vital something to make city champions this season. Now if city doesn’t win PL or CL, which is highly likely, Pep may not be there next year. Hopefully, we don’t have to see Sanchez playing against us in the PL.

  2. I always choose (well I always try) to find the positives-

    If Ox refused £180k a week – then selling for £35-40m is the right thing to do.

    Keeping our best player Sanchez is our best chance of performing well this year.

    We paid the most ever for an Arsenal player.

    And we offered nearly double that for a hugely ambitious Lemar deal.

    With Sanchez, Giroud, and Lacazette – we have 3 great attacking players. It’s been a very long time since we had that.

    I know it’s tough time to be a Gooner right now – but doesn’t have to be as gloomy as many think. We can turn the poor start to the season around with some tweaks to the formation, shape and balance of the team.

    Keep the faith – or you’ll be part of the problem and hurt our beloved Arsenal

    1. Faith in what exactly,..

      Stan’s negligence and money raiding

      Wengers incompetence and dwindling abilities

      Non existent and unspoken laws – that Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke must have broken an infinite number of times with their lies and actions.

      NO MORE EXCUSES!! C’est Fini!

    2. Winning the FA Cup the way we did was amazing…with damn near the same team who threw it away at Anfield.

      They went into that game last week knowing one of their own had turned down a massive pay rise to stay and I’m sure that created issues in the changing room. I reckon the new boys were left out so as not to entangle them in it and AW was looking to see how it panned out.

      So, we lost but FFS we haven’t become crap overnight. We press on now with a great squad and a team spirit that may well be stronger now that AOC has moved on. If we tear Bournemouth apart next week then watch the media find another spin…

      Support the team: We know we are better than that and look at what happened after we stuffed Chelsea at the beginning of last season!

    3. Simon, Can I speak frankly to you? I admire your analysis of what we have now upfront and you are correct, in theory. Also loyalty is an admirable quality, in normal times. You have written, from your point of view a sensible and well argued case, which were those in charge, from Kroenke, Gazidis through to Wenger, not so thoroughly AMATEUR in the way they make decisions, (not that I believe they ever make a planned and thought through decision) your post would have much strength. But can you not see that the position with the current set up in charge is hopeless? We have the blind leading the blind. Wenger has always said”Oh, I did not see it.” We always assumed he was speaking about a key on field referee decision, didn’t we! But , clearly , he was speaking about the way that modern football has left him and his old fashioned, stuck in the past methods behind for around ten years already. The club is run , at every important level, by blind dinosaurs and if you cannot or will not see that evident truth, which tens of thousands of us know full well, then I must say, your optimism is misplaced. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear and we first need to get rid of the proverbial sows ears, all of whom are stopping our once great and honestly run club, from even attempting the silk purse we all crave. For clarity , of course , I refer to KROENKE, GAZIDIS AND THE PUPPET BOARD AND WENGER!

      1. Thanks for considered response-

        As fans we can’t run, kick or influence the action on the pitch much – which is part reason us fans get so exasibated when we have to witness such a poor performance-

        Perhaps made worse after FA Cup win, and signing 2 great players – some including myself had some optimism this year. So just exaggerated the pain.

        I promise you I was also in despair.

        But after I did my fictitious team sheet I realise we DO have great players. The best in at least 8 years.

        My fear is that fan revolt will tear the team apart more than Wenger could ever achieve.

        1. I agree that on paper , the current squad is one of the strongest in recent times. But the present manager i s clearly unable to motivate those players, collectively to regularly perform. Do note the use of “regularly” as, without that, the odd good win is just an oasis in a barren desert. The whole set up is amateur. I would agree that in the right managers hands, eg Klopp, Mourinho, possibly Cochettino, this present squad would have a reasonable chance of top four. But never under Wenger. A Rolls-Royce may look fine in your garage but is no use at all if the engine only occasionally splutters into life. My point, is that after attending since 1958, I could no longer live with my conscience if I did not at least try to encourage others, who are younger, more energetic and more technically savvy , to try saving our club. I gave up going a year ago, no longer able to stomach the lies, hypocricy and laissez faire attitude throughout the club and squad. Seems to me that either you believe in standing up and being counted for what you believe, or you don’t. I do! I respect your point of view but intend to fight it.

        2. If the rumor is true that players actually wanted wenger out thus the disorder in the dressing room then it shows they actually are trying to get wenger out, the only problem is that we suffer along when arsenal loses because of their attitude.

          We cant replace a whole squad because some hate the coach so its better to fire the coach. but our board dont have the balls to do it

  3. I would love to be a fly on the wall at the first training session after the international break, when Wenger addresses Sanchez (hopefully one on one) and then the player group. Arsenal’s season will hinge on how the underlying tensions between Wenger, Sanchez and the playing group are resolved.

  4. Never sell your best players to rivals
    We have strengthened Liverpools bench
    We could have strengthend City’s starting 11. Aguero, Alexis, DeBruyne/Silva, Sterling

    We sold RVP to United and Gave them the Title

    Short break from criticism of Wenger. He did the right thing not selling Alexis to City

    Back to criticism. He sold OX when we could have used him this season. Wenger screwed up the window anyway. We were begging him. Lemar, Mahrez or Draxler and Seri or Goretzka. We will pay dearly for his dithering, deception and games.

    We need to let Wenger and the board know how much he has hurt us, how much we are angry.

    Wenger, Kroenke and Gazidas OUT

    1. Great post. I am pleased your “short break from criticism of Wenger” lasted only another ten words, which I agree with(the ten words, that is). I would add to your comment on the last line , that it is up to us all to force those scum out by boycotting games and merchandise and by a social media campaign- to quote the deranged Trump- “the fire and fury of which the world has never before seen”

      1. This is next game starting 11
        Mustaf….Kos…….Monreal
        Bellerin….LeCoq….Wilshire…..Saed
        …………………..Iwobi……………………..
        …………………………………Alexis……..
        ………………. Lacazette…………………
        Play Iwobi or Alexis in the Ozil role if we put Alexis there Welbeck or Iwobi can go to the left . But they have to sit in the middle not to the right Bellerin can cover right wing he has the pace and fitness to push up and get back to cover in time .

  5. So here’s my starting line-up for next game, assuming all fit-

    Cech
    Mustafi – Kos – Monreal
    Bellerine – Coq – Xaka – Sead
    Ramey – Sanchez
    Giroud

    • Solid back 3, with lots of experience and good pace.
    • Sead great as wingback. Bellerine needs to improve – but don’t see better option.
    • Coq will protect defence, stay in position and stop opposition.
    • Xaka can hit his long balls – needs to improve positional but next to Coq midfield will be more stable.
    • Ramsey in the Ozil role. Will drop back into midfield when needed, can contribute more goal threat than Ozil.
    • Giroud chosen over Lacazette because I expect opposition to defend deep so less space to run into which is what Lacazette needs.

    This is a cautious stable setup designed not to leak goals, and have better midfield presence than recent games.

  6. And if Wiltshire was impressing in training, then I’d play him in midfield instead of Xaka.

    I really pray he’s injuries are over. If he’s at his best – he’s exactly the player we need in midfield!

    1. Cazorla was too good to take on, but Xhaka, Wilshere will fancy his chances. And I think Wenger would love a reason to play him ahead of Xhaka. Wilshere could even rival him in the defensive department. He should be tried as a deep lying player, and tell him to dribble only when necessary as he’ll be our last line of midfield. Get him to watch tapes of Mascherano.

    2. Good thing we are accepting our faith and we are beginning to have great hope in our players. Without injuries, I believe in Jack, he’s a fighter with a strong character.

  7. The idea that Arsenal could actually PLAN any course of action, even whether to make tea or coffee, is laughable. They do everything in a reactionary panic and this is one of many reasons why our club has become a universal laughing stock. They have not the nous or wit to out fox any of our rivals, all of whom have professional men in charge of both club and team. Though I and most of us have already written this many times, I stress once again that the only hope we have is to force, by our own concerted fan campaign, a clearout of all who claim, laughably, to be in a position of power at the club; Wenger, Gazidis and the whole rotten board and the scummy Kroenke (Texas ranch and all) must be cleared out and thrown away like the pile of dog poo they are. There are professional pople out there willing and able to take over; Usmanov being in pole position but until the cancer is cut out, which is up to us all, we have no hope of change.

  8. Pep considering reporting arsenal for not selling sanchez is laughable, keeping alexis probably the better of the options. we stood to miss out on lemar and draxler no matter what; we at least have a chance to compete with our best player available. i understand it these are professional athletes so now’s as good time as has ever been to honour their contractual obligation and be at their best out on the field.

    provided they can maintain a professional code we’ll come closer to achieving damage limitation so far as expectations on the field nobody wants to see arsenal getting a hiding, again. i’m happier AS is still here. who knows his partnership with lacaz may prove to be the tonic only as far as outputs on the field. (meanwhile the kronke, gazidas, wenger problem needs to be firmly resolved).

  9. As a lifelong City fan I would have loved us to sign Sanchez as I have always admired his playing style and commitment. If I were an Arsenal fan I would fully support Wenger’s stance. You cannot allow a major PL rival to continue to raid your better players (very debatable in the case of Adebayor) and what message would it send to capitulate once again to a want away player. I think the Saints drew the line with van Dijk and ironically Liverpool with Coutinho. It will be interesting to see if these 2 plus Sanchez perform as professionals and see out their contracts fully committed to their clubs and more importantly their team mates.

  10. It was widely reported by Sky sports and others that Monaco ACCEPTED the bid but the deal did not happen cos Lemar was not willing to come to Arsenal. So I don’t think the premise of this article is accurate. Moreover, why did Man City wait till the final day to bid for Sanchez? If they really wanted him they should have bid earlier in the transfer window so as to give Arsenal time to take a decision and find a suitable replacement. Actually, I believe Man City were being Mischievous by waiting till the last day to bid for a player as vital to Arsenal’s season as Sanchez. It seems to me that it was Man City playing mind games to ensure Arsenal had an unsettled player on their hands, and to ensure Sanchez remains unsettled, the rumour mill has already started saying that Man City would try again in January, which is very unlikely. I think Arsenal are on the receiving end rather than Man City.

    1. I think Wenger should have gone for Draxler the moment Neymar went to PSG. Or he could have submitted a 50m pound bid for Lemar the at the early stage of the transfer window. Most of us are not talking about the DM position. This is critical. One of Veratti, Rabbiot and Matuidi would have been a good signing. For now, we can only support the team. Protests won’t change anything. A good atmosphere at the emirates is important. For now, he has a job of getting us the right version of Sanchez. And should go for one of Draxler, Mahrez and Lemar in January. We need to have the right players in the middle. Ramsey should go back to the bench. Wilshere and Xhaka, Xhaka and Coq, Iwobi and Xhaka are options Wenger should consider in central midfield.

    2. We supposedly gave city the green light, they are asking why not sooner, and we are asking why did they wait. We usually ask about a player and see if we get the green light to bid, but city don’t work like that as they just bid for who they want. So it’s difficult to see who was pissing about. We prob expected city to do as they always do, but city could have been abiding by our way of doing things.

  11. Lemar and Sanchez situation, is a smoke screen, I for one felt Arsenal did not have the money to buy the players we actually wanted, that is why we were going to sell some of our main players, the lemar deal was a fake,Arsenal knew long enough that lemar had a match on the same day the window was going to be closed the timing of the bid was just the right time not to be accepted. Alex situation was also hyped with the intention not to let him go.

    I feel strongly Wenger, the board and the owner are having issues that could be to the detriment of arsenal and must be brought to the Arsenal public for us to understand .

    Well we may not have changed much, but I expect some of our youngsters to fill the gap in players we did not buy

  12. We pulled out of the Lemar deal due to time restraints, Monaco accepted our bid but the player did not. Monaco and Wenger said as much. Personally, I think we had no intention of spending 90m on Lemar. We would have pushed on and tried in the time we had, rather than bidding then reeling it back in. I believe we done this for two reasons. One, we did not want Liv getting the player so we put the price at a region where they would not go. Two, make it look like we were willing to do big big business but unfortunately time was not on our side, so lets blame time. Actually there is a three, three is what you say. We believe we would benefit more from having Alexis with us this season, ahead of the reality of him at city, that might have been a kick to the teeth ..and balls.

  13. A lots of right ups here are mere presumptions. Yet we try to convince everyone they are facts. I hear people talk about a friction between Wenger and Sanchez, what fiction? Same people are claiming that Sanchez has made up his mind not to play for Arsenal again, when and where did he say so?
    Before the transfer deadline I remember someone tweeted that Sanchez has decided to stay in Arsenal and Sanchez liked the tweet. People immediately said he was just trying to get hits blablablah, but here we are, Sanchez is staying with Arsenal. So who knows? Sanchez has never come out to tell anyone he really wanted to move to City including his team mates. Arturo Vidal said Sanchez never mentioned to anyone of them in the Chilean camp that he was leaving Arsenal for city, also corroborated by his national team captain and keeper, who said Alex was only focused on the Chilean game and not on any transfer matter. So where did we get the story that city had their officials at the Chilean camp ready for Alexis Signature?
    Alex knew what the club’s position was from the onset, and it is that he would not be allowed to join a rival club, which has been achieved. The way and manner it was done is irrelevant.
    Alexis will return to the club and give he very best, because he is a pro and knows that he has a year’s contract with arsenal, and that is the only relevant fact on ground now, all other talks are just hearsays and gossips.
    Some many have been critical of Chamberlain, his contribution, attitude and injury records and were asking that he be sold, with Walcott, Ramsey etc. Transfer deadline day, Chamberlain is sold , all of a sudden he has become one of Arsenals best players that should not have been sold to a rival. What happened to the 8goals in 6years useless player we were clamouring to be moved on, the player who has stagnated?
    Where do you stand? You may hate Wenger and Kroenka, but please stop hatred and negativity toward Arsenal football club. COYG!!

  14. Either way, what we`ve got we`ve got
    Next game: 4-3-3

    Bell Holding Kos sead
    Jack Coq Xhaka
    Ozil Laca Sanchez
    subs: walcott giroud iwobi rambo chambers

  15. I do not believe Wenger pulled out of it, I think Gazidis pulled out of it, we all read the comments about if Alexis is sold then it is the boards choice as his decision is sporting and that Alexis will stay.

    I can’t help but ask myself if Gazidis supporting City has anything to do with the volume of players that we sold to City, even when Wenger didn’t want the player sold…

    We have a poor CEO and he magnifies Wengers faults giving us supporters who love the club with such passion, it gives us a broken heart.

    Ambitious CEO who can do his job would push more on transfers and act quicker, he would find a new manager to replace Wenger if Wenger can not perform with his main targets being bought.

    Silent Stan will not jump in and do what we want unless he can see profit from it, believing this I would like to point out how Gazidis has been costing AFC massive funds over the decades and AFC could be earning much more in sponsorship deals if us supporters felt pride and wanted to buy AFC stuff.

    AFC have some of the best fans in the world when they are proud of their club, I may be biased 😛 but you all support AFC in your way and you all love the club like I do, we all spend on AFC when we are happy with them.

    There is ZERO reason why UTD should earn around £21 million more than us from kit manufacturer when they was in the EL and we was in the UCL, we had 2 of the top 5 kit sales in the EPL with Ozil and Alexis!

    AFC get about £71 mil LESS per year than UTD in main sponsorship deals, we shouldn’t be that far behind and that loss of money is less added wealth to silent stans asset, maybe Silent Stan will get a new CEO if he thinks we could earn more with a better CEO.

    A TOP player value increases at a faster rate than interest in a bank, banking that money rather than spending it on a top player QUICKLY so the price isn’t bumped up can make AFC worth more in shares than banking the same volume of cash.

    Buying average quality and hoping will only cost the club, like Perez deal, we ended up loaning him instead of taking such a financial loss.

    Ox was top quality who hasn’t shown consistency and even though he isn’t the finished article, we made a profit on him. He was a top young signing and made profit.

    How about UTD paying for CR9 and then making mega profit off him?

    How many players did we read about Wenger missing out by a couple million???? How much wealth would they have added to the share prices IF we had them and they performed like they did… Auba?

    If fans will not boycott the games and stop paying for the tickets then let us at least unite and tell Silent Stan that the CEO is not making him the money that he could, if Silent Stan starts to see Gazidis as a loss to profit then maybe we can get an ambitious CEO in who will help us be ambitious and win titles, use that then to get better business done and add to the value of the clubs assets (players), remove the lowest value players (not good enough for AFC) and replace them with high value assets which will increase in value when we are winning/truly competing at the highest level.

    We get an ambitious club and Silent Stan has the reward of AFC being worth more and more and MORE… win/win.

  16. Bad times for us Gunners, where screwed even way lets say wenger goes then what? What will change? Lets say we get a top class manager could he do better then wenger? It’s the owner stan that’s ruining our club he must sell up ASAP otherwise I see no change for the future.

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