Alexis Sanchez and his poker hand. by Neil
So much has been written about Sanchez over the last 6 months and his alleged wish to team up with Pep at Man City.
Many people have written on this site how terrible it would be if he were allowed to leave on a free next season as opposed to selling him to City now. Well lets play out both scenarios…
1. He goes to City now. Unquestionably he is a formidable goal scoring attribute to any side and his goals would surely help to elevate City’s position next term. Interestingly I haven’t read of a City plan B if they don’t get Sanchez which leads me onto my second point.
2. Wenger and the board stand firm and refuse to sell him. I don’t believe he would sit the season out on the bench and miss the opportunity to play alongside Lacazette and Ozil not to mention any other acquisitions we might make.
I feel confident we will not suffer the debilitating February that we always do in 2018, not least because we won’t have two matches against an elite European club in the UCL last sixteen. Pyschologically that has had an enormous bearing on our season year on year. I believe as a consequence we will be mentally stronger and our form much more stable.
And so here is a potential dilemma for Sanchez:
He is forced to stay, we have a solid run in and, dare I say it, find ourselves challenging for the Premier League and the Europa. It really isn’t inconceivable – given the acquisitions we have made and are looking to make. City by contrast fail to push on, don’t win anything and scrape a top 4 place again. Will the then 30 year old Sanchez be desperate to leave Arsenal or re-evaluate and decide to remain with us?
I think Wenger and the board believe by holding onto Sanchez, and with our acquisitions and non participation of the UCL, we are genuine contenders, as do I. I also think if we outperform City and they don’t finish in the top four Pep will resign and view non qualification of UCL as a failure which would leave Sanchez nowhere to go.
To summarise Wenger is right to force Sanchez to stay: There are zero guarantees City will kick on without him whereas by keeping him we have every possibility to finish in a significantly better position than Pep’s team when May 2018 comes around.
Am I right?
Neil@activemusic