Arsenal: Keeping Alexis Sanchez shows weakness, not strength

Arsenal were not able to resolve the Alexis Sanchez situation this summer, meaning that next summer is going to be a right nuisance.

Arsenal had all the pieces in place. They had the bid for Thomas Lemar accepted and they had a sizable offer from Manchester City to ship off their last remaining wantaway. And then it all went wrong. They found out that yet again, they were ill-prepared.

So Alexis stays. And somehow, this “firm stance” is being praised by reporters out there. As if Arsenal stood at the podium, looked the world dead in the eyes and bellowed “we are too good and too proud to sell to a rival!”

But that isn’t what happened, is it?

They wanted to sell him. The fact that they didn’t doesn’t show that they are in a position of strength, it is just a failure to sell a player that doesn’t want to be here.

You know, all Arsenal had to do to sell him was find a replacement. There were strong links to Lemar and far-too-weak links to Julian Draxler. Failure to land either of them is why they held onto Alexis. Not because they are being strong or because they won him over. They kept him by default because they failed to land anyone else.

So stuff your praise in a sack, because they do not deserve it. It’s not like they looked City in the face and said “Back off, we won’t sell to you anymore,” they said “hold up, let’s try to find someone to replace him at the last second and then we will sell him.”

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Then they failed, so they came back, looked at City and said “back off, we won’t sell to you anymore.” Unfortunately, it’s just that second one that is getting noticed.

Two months. They had two months to replace Alexis. Which is something that was clearly on his mind, especially as he is going to leave for free next summer. Will we still be praising this “strong stance to keep Alexis” when he does leave?

For two months Wenger talked to players and he couldn’t find anyone. What did he expect to happen in those first few match weeks? Clearly he expected things to go much differently, which shows that he yet again overestimated his own team, something he inexplicably continues to do.

This is weakness, not strength. We are being forced to hold onto a player that doesn’t want to play for us all because we weren’t strong enough to find a replacement. In that same regard, it shows dependency. Again, he doesn’t want to be here, yet we are so lacking in confidence that we don’t dare play on without him.

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To me, that’s not something to celebrate. Especially after hearing that Alexis was supposedly devastated that the move to City broke down.

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