Arsenal must not buckle under Manchester City’s Alexis Sanchez pressure

Manchester City are, reportedly, increasingly confident that Arsenal will buckle under the pressure and allow Alexis Sanchez to leave. The Gunners must not let that happen.

The future of Alexis Sanchez is the biggest decision that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have to make this summer now that the manager’s future has been assured. With just a year remaining on his current deal, and having delayed contract talks on a number of occasions, to say his place in the squad is precarious would be an understatement.

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In fact, as of writing, most reports suggest that Sanchez is on his way out of the Emirates. If that is the case, and I very much believe it to be the case, then the club’s priorities must shift from contract negotiations to sale negotiations.

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But given the importance and the influence that Sanchez has had on Arsenal’s fortunes and will have on any future club’s, this is not just a case of haggling for the best price possible, as would usually be the case in a sale. In this case, the destination is as equally important, if not more so, as the price that he eventually leaves for.

The most threatening team to be linked with a move for the Chilean international is Manchester City. Pep Guardiola, backed by the enormously wealthy Sheikh Mansour, has been more than willing to splash the cash, acquiring the services of Bernardo Silva and Ederson in big money deals already. Sanchez would be a more established and more expensive signing than both of those, but City are reportedly growing in confidence, believing that Arsenal may buckle under the pressure to sell for the highest fee.

That is something that the Gunners absolutely cannot do. Even if they are forced to sell Sanchez for £10 million less than if they were to sell him to City, it would still be a better course of action to send him abroad. Placing a 24-goal attacker in the midst of a side as talented and creative as City’s is a thoroughly terrifying prospect.

There is the possibility that the money-grabbing Stan Kroenke, who clearly has little regard for winning and is quite happy to continue lining his pockets, will step in, exploiting his power as owner, and order the sale of Sanchez, simply to aid the bank balance of the club.

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However, if Wenger and the club do have the choice of where to sell Sanchez, even if they must take a lesser price as a result, sending him overseas is the sensible decision. Unfortunately for us, rarely do the Gunners take the sensible decision in the transfer market.