Arsene Wenger made the huge decision to drop Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal’s starting line-up on Saturday evening, and the team succumbed to a devastating loss, but was he right to do so?
The Gunners lost 3-1 to Liverpool this weekend, seeing themselves drop out the top four, and huge criticism has come in for the Frenchman due to his selection, with the club’s two highest goalscorers of the term benched.
Arsenal have scored 55 league goals so far this season, with 25 of those coming from Theo Walcott or Alexis Sanchez, giving us a distinctly lower threat going forward, and following the result, the manager cited to insist the decision was purely tactical.
Of course this only moved to increase the pressure from fans, who are growing increasingly frustrated with Wenger, but reports have since revealed that his decision may not have been all that is seemed.
News has emerged stating that the Chilean forward had a huge altercation on the training field in the run up to the weekend’s match-up, and even stormed out of training early, reports which would not surprise anyone.
Alexis has shown his displeasure on the pitch on more than one occasion, arguing with fellow team-mates on the pitch, as well as venting his frustration at having been substituted on more than one occasion also.
This weekend’s benching will have been a huge blow to his relationship with the club, and the resuit will only have strengthened his contract stance also, and it seems near-certain that he will now refuse to extend his playing deal beyond the end of next season, which would most likely mean he will leave come the summer.
If the story is true about his attitude in training, and that he has refused to complete training this week, then Wenger is completely right in stamping his authority down in my opinion. No one person is bigger than the club, and regardless of the result, we must stand by the decision.
Whether you still believe in the Gunners boss or not, you have to agree that Arsenal is bigger than Sanchez, and no player should be allowed to show a lack of discipline or respect to our manager or team and not feel the repercussions.
Was Wenger right to drop Alexis? Do we think Sanchez could be professional and see out the season without issue before forcing his move? Or could he possibly decide to stay?
Pat J
I don’t get why people are taking seriously 25m as a place to start with Alexis bid. Low-ball is one thing but this has to be a joke. It doesn’t matter that a player has only one season on contract when the player has many suitors. You pay the price so that there is no doubts about where he’ll be next season. If he’s worth 80 well then 60 is the lowest you could take. But when you see Lacazette going for that number in same window well then you say f**k that we want 90 or we’re keeping him to try help with our own ambitions.
I think you are dreaming. Sanchez on a five-year contract would be worth 100 million IMO. That’s why we should have renewed him in September and paid him the 250 or 300 it would have taken. We could have sold him for a fortune even this summer.
Now if we say 60 million to PSG and Real and Bayern the only likely suitors to pay that kind of money, and they say “see you later” and they wait till the last day of the window, you would have to take any price they offer. You would be foolish to force Sanchez to serve out his contract. We don’t have the money to allow him to rot in the reserves or U21.
You will be in for a shock if you expect 60 or anything over 35 million max.
sanchez or no player is bigger than a club offpitch or in training right…nice
but ramsey and some useless players are bigger than the club in the pitch of play right..
so a player who feels what and how the fans feel about the mediocrity of the club is now slated to be bigger than the club…
wenger spent a donkey years at the club and won nothing yet he stays in fat contracts and yet he is not bigger than the club, remember last season when he complained that the salaries of the emirates workers was affecting the club transfer…imagine what a joke arsenal has become…admin pls think of something better to write about and leave sanchez out of this…van pussy was a legend…
Wenger was absolutely wrong in what he did with Sanchez. There are only two ways to approach this: either you play him and tell the others he was right in what he said (at this point we have no clue what was the issue at hand here) and be done with it or you get him out of the squad totally and send him to play U21 until he appologize.
What Wenger did? Nothing. He actually said Sanchez that he still holds the club ransom with his contract and yes, that Sanchez is above the squad and club. Also, it shows to other players that they can do the same $hit and expect to be treated with a 45 minutes beching.
I don’t know what the strop was but if Sanchez was right then I wouldn’t have benched him. If he really did $hit over everything I would have him out of squad and let his agent know that I am seeing the end of his contract while he plays for the U21s. This is how a ruthless club/manager takes care of business. I don’t need to give examples. Winners did that for me.
If you don’t know what actually happened don’t make assumptions
Wenger has been caught out in lies in the past like when he lied about Welbeck injury
Alexis is our best player. If he is asking for £350,000 per week or less than pay him. Wenger AND Gazidas have both said they can afford it. So put their money where their mouth is.
Alexis is probably asking for a lot of money but Wenger is sabotaging Arsenal. That is worse than “ransome”
Alexis may not be bigger than Arsenal but I’d chose Alexis any day over that incompetent, and stupid oaf “managing” and ruining Arsenal
Wenger out
This is exactly why I gave two options because I have no clue what happened. You, on the other hand, seem to know everything. Maybe you should actually read what I wrote.
@ ARSENAL GIRL …….AWESOME WELL SAID YOU MADE MY DAY :))))))))))
I don’t get your point, u wanna force a player to spend the rest of his career without a trophy…that’s evil
This article is a joke, guess Sanchez was telling them to give 100% that’s why he got angry.. all the players don’t give 100% like he does, everyone knows this and even his countrymen rallied to take him out of the club coz he’s the only one who plays, the other just make up the numbers and get their fat paycheck at the end of the week..
Between him and Wenger who is regarded bigger than the club? May you should write an article about Wenger first then players to follow
You are assuming too much while having no idea what actually happened. For all we know is just Arsenal PR at work trying to either have fans against Sanchez (or Wenger, not like the fans need any reason to do this anyway).
Between him and Wenger I’d rather have them both gone. Sanchez will go anyway. Probably Wenger will follow soon.
Ok I have no idea, do you Budd? You want both gone but Sanchez first, I remember how you used to be the greatest Wenger fan in here, and still do defend the old man once in a while.. in my opinion, Wenger has to go and we need to retain our best player whom at the moment is Sanchez..
no one is bigger than the club but Wenger is, he sets his retirement date, he gets paid too much for so little, he says he’ll leave when he wants, that means the club can do nothing unless he decides, so who’s bigger there? Wenger O……
Sanchez will go first. Not my choice but his. And it does not matter whether Wenger or another manager will come. He’s already gone.
And that’s called ambition, according to you and Wenger
I hate it when these admins just wanna create attention with wenger supportive posts…pfft
Absolutely WRONG
Why on earth would you bench our best World Class player who is also the most consistent performer, most consistent goal scorer and hardest working player on the squad. Alexis proved he could score against Liverpool when he was put on in the second half.
We possibly could have won if he had started. We most definitely would have performed better.
This is almost sabotage by Wenger. At the very least it is massive negligence and stupidity
I’m coming to the point where not only do I want him out but not even want a statue of him built after he leaves. The man has destroyed any tiny chance of Alexis staying and will probably not replace him with anyone close to the quality of Alexis
Wenger Out…… Please!
It’s called discipline mate and apparently ?zil was supposedly going to be dropped for the Liverpool game as well, Flu my ass, I wonder if he has a shiner?
Anyways, Wenger’s disciplinary action backfired by bringing on Sanchez for the start of the second half, which speaks volumes regarding players being bigger than the club.
In today’s news, Wenger and Sanchez are pictured shaking hands at the training ground, they have kissed and made up by the look of things ?
Now let’ the good times roll by grabbing that Wenger trophy ???
One moment we want leaders and fighters on the pitch the next moment we scold Sanchez for arguing with his team mates!!!??? Fall in-line Sanchez just show up on Friday to collect your paycheque and don’t rock the boat. We have a good thing going here. No one expects us to win so leave us alone Sanchez!!!
Hehehe
Also, as has been pointed out, if the reason Sanchez was benched was because a discipline issue then Wenger did a poor job benching him for a half a game and asking him to once again bail out the lads the second half. He should have shown some resolve and benched him for the whole match and told the press and fans that Sanchez was benched for disciplinarian reasons and that the details of that are between him and Sanchez.
At least Wenger would not have looked like a fool.
What Wenger did was half baked like everything else he does these days.
yeah if wenger had the balls he could have benched sanchez for the whole game and or even left him off the team totally…conte did the same thing and Chelsea won al the same…watch the picture there…conte had built a team independent of any missing player…
yeah if wenger had the balls he could have benched sanchez for the whole game and or even left him off the team totally…conte did the same thing and Chelsea won al the same…watch the picture there…conte had built a team independent of any missing player… but the fact is we just cant do without sanchez, we are like headless cows without him..
secondly welbeck was used in the number ten role, lol…ferguson would laugh his heart out right there, wenger is having a psychic breakdown and he is unleashing it on arsenal, he has mental problem.
thirdly ozil is a definition of what arsenal is, I cant count how many times he he and wenger had cooked up the flu story just to hide, wenger is really protecting ozil and its sad cos we felt he was world class,nah….hes not man enough for us at all, he lacks balls what a weakling m afraid…
fourthly 85% of fans wished we continued the losing streak which isn’t a bad thing actually looking at the present condition of the club…
I agree Leo – having said that, punish the player not the team and fans. Not playing Sanchez punished the club, with him we might have managed a draw and kept Liverpool behind us. A financial fine would hurt Sanchez a lot and would have made a point without risking our top 4 chances.
Punish the player not the club. (if in fact Sanchez was being punished for an argument with his fellow players or Wenger.)
I don’t know what Sanchez did but fine the day lights out of him and ban him from instagram for a month but play the most potent asset you have against a team who have trained all week around stopping said potent asset.
Wenger will hopefully be gone soon and probably Sanchez too. I will not miss Arsene as this has been a loooong time coming. It will be a shame to loose Sanchez but it is a reflection of the state of AFC that he is considering such an act.
You sir made me remember one time when Henry was still around, le prof said Henry won’t play in the next match due to sickness against Man U, but Ferguson didn’t buy that excuse and his team prepared to face Henry, the king played from the start and he scored.. how the mighty have fallen, nowadays our best quality striker is benched coz of a row in the dressing room. Liverpool were happy learning that Sanchez was out, played like they are in training
Stupid article really. Arsene has to go as simple as that. Keeping a dope of a manager and letting that cause your best player to become terminally frustrated (at the manager’s Basil Fawlty tactics) is also really stupid.
100% correct
Alexis should have started the game, Wenger made a decision and it backfired. It could have happened to any manager and does, week in, week out. As fans we have no god given right to expect our team / club to win every game or trophy that we are entered into especially when there are clubs who can and do spend more money on better players than we have.
The board so far have been happy with Wenger keeping us in the champions league and a top 4 position in the premier league and as long as Arsenal continue to maintain that status then Wenger will remain as boss until he retires, the next manager will be required to do the exact same given that is what the board want as a minimum and so change will only come with a change of board.
In any other instance when a player rebels against the club and coach for whatever reason there is no room for doubt, disciplinary actions must be taken, even when he is your best player……it could be the case even for SANCHEZ, those words no player is greater than the Club are well understood, the problem in this case is that a growing majority of the Fans are fed up with the Club and Manager, years of frustration, deception nothing changing and doing nothing about it has the great majority of Fans siding with the Player against the Club and Manager……unfortunately both lost the respect of most ARSENAL fans, there is a revolt brewing YES like every year the difference this year is that losing Sanchez will not go without consequence….players of his caliber were our only hope to change the status quo and dream for something more and very probably now is gone, while it seems that nothing will change at the Top and for the next 2 years we will get more of the same…..hope that Sanchez will continue playing with the same determination till he moves to another team, and don’t pull a PAYET or BERAHINO, after then we wish him the best in his new Club, we all know that he did his very best for our Club
If the rumors are true, then I’m on Wenger’s side. Yes, he’s a professional player getting paid millions of dollars for what he does, so he should act accordingly. Wenger, no matter how good or bad he’s been in recent years, is still his manager, and has the authority. This is done in every professional sport. Of the top of my head I can think of at least a handful of incidents in NBA and NFL where players were benched for starting the game because of some misconduct. It should be no different in football, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s your best or worst player.
if I may ask you what did sanchez do…
No one knows for sure. But I guess some words were exchanged during practice last week, and he (Sanchez) stormed out from the training ground. As I said earlier, if that’s the case, Wenger had every right to bench him.