When all the football media outlets were full of Arsenal transfer rumours linking our Chile international striker with a summer move to Man City, there were quite a few claiming that the City boss Pep Guardiola was so keen to be reunited with his former player from FA Barcelona that he was willing to let one of their quality attacking stars come the other way.
One of those was the Argentinean striker Sergio Aguero who at times last season seemed to be well out of favour with Guardiola. That swap was certainly one that a lot of Arsenal fans would have liked to see, but the way that Aguero has started the new season we all know that this is not going to happen.
The other most talked about swap deal involved Raheem Sterling coming to north London as part of the Sanchez deal and not so many Gooners were as keen on that one. The young England international did not have the best of times last season after a strong start and the reports this summer were that his manager had offered him as part of the attempt to sign our striker.
Now though, according to an Evening Standard report, Pep has changed his mind and has no intention of letting the talented 22-year old go anywhere after his very impressive recent form.
Guardiola said, “Raz [Raheem] is staying here. The club trust him, that is why we have invested a lot of money in him, so the players we have are going to stay.
“If they want to leave they are going to leave, but he wants to stay. If players want to leave they have to ask the chairman, but there is no chance of that. He is going nowhere.”
So should Wenger and Arsenal forget about signing Sterling or is the Man City boss not being entirely honest? Or does it just depend on the form of Sterling at the time?
Bob.