A few months ago, we were told that Alexis Sánchez basically had his heart set on Chelsea thanks to the combination of wages, titles, location (London!), and Champions League football. But then Arsenal won a few games, including against Chelsea in the FA Cup, Alexis stopped sulking in public, Wenger claimed they’d break their wage structure for him, and the Chelsea rumor mill went quiet. There was also brief detour with Bayern supposedly showing interest and Arsenal staunchly refusing to sell to another Premier League team before Manchester City came back into the fore over the past few weeks. And it’s City who appear to be firmly in the driver’s seat now, with Chelsea a long-forgotten memory relegated to brief mentions at the ends of generic round-up articles of possible plans the club may have but will probably never act on.
Alexis Sanchez agrees personal terms with Manchester City with £50m move ‘virtually done’. [O Jogo] https://t.co/xiznE0tAhK
— City Watch (@City_Watch) July 8, 2017
In fact, according to rumors out of Chile and Portugal, Alexis has all but agreed a move to reunite with Pep Guardiola, with O Jogo for example claiming that a “verbal agreement” over personal terms is done after Alexis told Wenger that he wants to leave earlier this week — but only after presenting Arsenal with demands of £400k per week in wages. It’s doubtful that even City would be willing to pay him that much but as a ploy to “force” Arsène’s hand, it appears to have worked.
[El Mercurio] Alexis le comunicó al Arsenal que su decisión es jugar en el Manchester City. pic.twitter.com/uwabfB0nxs
— Arsenal Chile (@ArsenalChile) July 7, 2017
Personal terms are of course just one part of any transfer and City have yet to agree a fee with Arsenal. The Gunners are supposedly holding out for £80m while City are hoping to do business closer to £50m. There’s plenty of room in there for Chelsea to butt back in, if we so choose. Which might not be the worst idea given all that’s transpired with Lukaku and Costa and all of the rest of our feet-dragging on various (potential) deals.
Man City will make an opening bid of £50m for Alexis Sanchez. Arsenal will stand firm and demand £80m if they are to sell. [Mirror] #afc pic.twitter.com/JPKakUvm9j
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) July 8, 2017