This has been a complete disaster.
Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester United from Arsenal was meant to be the spark that launched the club’s challenge to Manchester City’s dominance. Instead, it has come to symbolise how United have got it so badly wrong over the last few years.
Sanchez is the highest-paid player in the Premier League but has scored just four times for United in 30 games. He looks completely lost within Jose Mourinho’s restrictive and reactive tactical plan and also appears to be a shadow of the player that excelled for Arsenal.
The combination of a footballer in physical decline, a team without an attacking plan and a hefty financial outlay have resulted in a truly terrible transfer deal.
Alexis Sanchez will end 2018 with fewer Premier League goals than Chris Smalling & Patrick van Aanholt, the same number as Oumar Niasse & Lewis Dunk and only one more than Shane Long.
— Richard Jolly 🇺🇦 (@RichJolly) November 30, 2018
The Chilean is about to turn 30 and is out injured until January. It sounds as though United would be happy to see him leave and that there is a realisation at Old Trafford that the deal hasn’t worked out.
According to Miguel Delaney, writing in The Independent, Sanchez has failed to settle at United and failed to impress anyone at the club. He is said to be miserable and two clubs – Inter Milan and Real Madrid – have been sounded out about signing him in January.
It sounds as though all parties could benefit if Sanchez were to leave the club in the winter transfer window.
According to the report:
- Staff at Arsenal felt that Sanchez was in physical decline.
- And United feel the same. So much so, Juan Mata is said to have beaten him in a sprint race in training.
- Mourinho does not consider him to be a certain starter in the team, and he is open to allowing Sanchez to leave the club.
- He is said to be something of a “loner.” Sanchez rarely socialised with his teammates at Arsenal and that has continued at United. He looks “extremely unhappy” at the club.
- He is reportedly paid over £500,000 a week after bonuses and contract clauses are factored in.
- Inter Milan and Real Madrid are said to have been approached about potentially signing the forward in January. Paris Saint-Germain are no longer interested in him.
- The report claims that United may even have to subsidise the transfer if they are to have any chance of getting him out of the club.
The report also claims that Arsene Wenger was surprised that Mourinho and United were interested in the player, as he was so unsuited to Mourinho’s reactive tactics.
United appear unlikely to finish in the top four this season – they’re currently in eighth place with 22 points after 14 games – so a change of manager at the end of the campaign feels inevitable.
It’s possible that Sanchez might improve his form under another coach and he surely wouldn’t have struggled to this extent at City had he signed for Pep Guardiola’s team.
However, it seems more likely that United may seek to cut their losses on Sanchez if they can find someone to take him off their hands.
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