We knew this was coming.
Manchester City have begin their late pursuit of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez with just three days left in the summer transfer window.
It has been reported that Man City will make a straight cash offer for Sanchez, who has less than 12 months left on his contract, but Arsenal are reportedly asking for cash plus Raheem Sterling in the deal.
A transfer fee of around $75 million has been mentioned for Sanchez, who can start talks with clubs outside of England in January about a free transfer next summer. It seems increasingly likely he will not sign a new deal at Arsenal, so the Gunners may be forced to sell now or risk losing him for nothing.
Sanchez, 28, looked dejected during Arsenal’s 4-0 humbling at Liverpool on Sunday in his first appearance of the season after recovering from injury and a busy summer away on international duty with Chile.
He is currently away on international duty with Chile ahead of their 2018 World Cup qualifiers but Chilean media has reported that Sanchez has requested to leave the national team squad to sort out “personal business” in the next few days.
With Arsene Wenger insisting multiple times over the summer that Sanchez would not be sold, reports circulated late on Monday that Sanchez had handed in an official transfer request for the first time as he wants to force through a move away from the Emirates Stadium.
The striker, who scored 24 goals and added 10 assists in the PL last season, signed for current Man City boss Pep Guardiola when he was in charge of Barcelona back in 2011 and El Nino Maravilla is believed to want to work with Pep once again.
When it comes to this deal, Guardiola is known to be a big fan of Sterling who scored late goals against Everton and Bournemouth last week.
The England winger, 22, is currently on national team duty and Arsenal’s insistence that he is included in part of any deal for Sanchez says a lot about how Wenger feels about Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Arsenal’s other current wide players with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain expected to leave in the next few days.
Sterling is said to be open to a move back home to London, so maybe there is some truth behind this.
Let’s see if Arsenal change their position on Sanchez to give one of the biggest potential deals of the summer some fresh momentum.
