The Alexis Sanchez saga has been rumbling on for over a year, and it would appear that he will be leaving Arsenal at the earliest opportunity going by the way that Wenger has softened his stance and has resigned himself to losing the Chilean.
In his press conference yesterday Wenger made it clear that he wants to get this business out of the way as quick as possible, but also said that Sanchez won’t be leaving until the boss has got his replacement in the team. Here is an extract from his interview from Arsenal.com….
on whether he wants to avoid an Alexis-like situation in the future…
No I don’t regret because at the end of the day all you can access to the demands of the players or you can’t and if you cannot, they don’t extend their contracts it’s as simple as that. It’s kind of a mathematical situation and that you cannot change.
on whether Alexis is replaceable…
Replaceable in the way that we find exactly the same player, certainly not, but there’s always a way to find a different balance. Alexis is an exceptional football player, he’s a world-class player and if that happens we have to find a different balance in the team.
on whether he didn’t sell Alexis in the summer because they had no replacement…
Yes.
on if a replacement is not brought in, Alexis will not go…
You sum it up very well.
on whether he wants a quick resolution…
Yes of course.
So now we simply have to wait and see who Wenger will bring in to appease the fans. He tried extremely hard to get Thomas Lemar in the summer, and he admitted back in September that we would return for another bid for the Frenchman. Le Prof told Sky: “Yes, we bid €100m for Lemar but the player wanted to stay in Monaco,”
“Yes, we’ll come back in for him.”