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Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez has no reason to prove anyone wrong
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal are playing with fire by maintaining Alexis Sanchez and it’s pretty unanimous what might happen. Not to mention he has no reason to disprove anyone.
The Alexis Sanchez situation at Arsenal is really only being heralded by the likes of Ivan Gazidis, who would obviously sooner swallow a loaded pin cushion than speak ill of a decision the club makes.
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But everyone else – literally everyone – is berating the decision to retain him. It does not need to be said again, but it is not a position of strength to keep someone against their will when you fail to land a replacement.
The big concern here – huge concern – is how Alexis will act this year. How will he play when he’s just counting down the time until he can swap out his shirt for baby blue? I don’t care how good spirited a player is, there is going to be some major holding back in that situation.
And now even more voices are raining in, this time Jose Sulantay, the Chile U20 coach in 2007 who still knows Alexis pretty well, opined that it’s a major concern.
"Alexis was more worried about his situation at Arsenal and now that he wasn’t transferred, he will have serious problems. He brushed off his teammates by saying that he wanted to go to a club that won things and now he has to return there."
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That’s hardly an inspiring statement from Arsenal’s perspective. And the most worrisome part about this is that Alexis has literally no reason to prove anyone wrong. For a couple reasons. First of all, everyone knows that he isn’t happy there. Pep Guardiola knows too. Do you really think Pep is going to think less of Alexis if he’s a slouch this year?
No.
Second of all, Alexis has nothing left to prove. He is leaving in under a year. He is counting down the days. All he has to do is suffer through a wasted year.
The only hope we have is if Alexis is too in love with football to have a wasted year. That is all the hope we have. And we have to hope that that love can overcome his bitterness to Arsenal which, don’t let Wenger fool you, is going to be strong.
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There is not going to be a lot of love between the two sides and it will affect Alexis’s play. The only question is how much he will give into it and how much he will feel some sense of honor to perform for the club.