Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez admission inconsequential to plan A

Alexis Sanchez has stated that he wants to play in the Champions League. Here’s why such comments should be inconsequential to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger’s plan A.

After a promising start to the summer transfer window saw Arsenal secure the astute free-agent addition of Sead Kolasinac and break their club-record for Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette, their attentions must now shift from recruitment and who they can bring in to retention and who they can hold onto.

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There are several players who have been linked with a move away from the Emirates this summer. Many have just one year remaining on their current deals and, as a result, hold all the power at the negotiating table, threatening to leave for nothing just a year later if they do not get their way.

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Of the players that are in that position the most notable is Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean is widely considered the Gunners’ best and most important player, scoring 24 goals and assisting a further 10 in the Premier League last season. However, his most recent comments perhaps suggest that he is wanting to leave. Speaking with Chilean reporters, Sanchez admitted that he would like to play in the Champions League, something that Arsenal cannot offer him for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s 21-year tenure:

"“I want to play in the Champions League. The decision isn’t down to me, I need to wait for Arsenal. I’ve made my decision, now I wait for Arsenal’s reply. The idea is to play in and win the Champions League. It is something that I have dreamed about it since I was little.”"

The comments, though, should not change what should be the Gunners’ plan A. Plan A is to keep Sanchez at all costs, with or without a new contract. Preferably, it comes with a renewed deal, but if he is unwilling to agree to one, then keeping him for another season and risk losing him for nothing the next year is still not an unwise move.

Given the extortionate number of games that he has played, the enthusiastic, busy, intense style that he plays with, and his age, he will be 29 when next summer rolls around, there is a chance that, for a player whose career started at a young age, his prime is quickly coming to an end.

Wenger could run Sanchez into the ground next season, unconcerned by the potential long-term damage that he is causing him, in full knowledge that he will no longer be at Arsenal beyond the end of the season.

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Sanchez wanting something that he cannot get at Arsenal does not change that fact. Perhaps it makes signing him to a new deal a little more difficult but it does not lessen the position of keeping for another regardless of an agreed deal. Sanchez is under contract next year no matter what, and whether he wants Champions League football or not, is inconsequential to that fact.