Arsenal: Hector Bellerin Alexis Sanchez complaint ridiculous

Hector Bellerin has stated that sometimes Alexis Sanchez’s insatiable desire to win was too much for the Arsenal dressing room. That is just ridiculous.

Alexis Sanchez did not leave Arsenal on especially good terms. Controversy and uncertainty had reigned for several weeks, with Arsene Wenger eventually believing it better for him to be dropped from the playing squad altogether than to have his disruptive influence on the bench.

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It was clear that several individuals had issues with the Chilean. He is notoriously difficult to please and can often be seen arguing with and gesticulating at his teammates when they do not perform to the level that he is expecting of them. It seems as though he was not winning the popularity stakes.

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And that has now been strongly hinted at by Hector Bellerin. Speaking at a Students’ Union in Oxford, the Arsenal full back admitted that Sanchez’s insatiable will to win was often too much to handle, hinting that it may have driven a rift between him and many of his teammates:

"“One of the best in the Premier League for sure but he is a player who always wants to win. He demands from everyone, sometimes it can be too much. The great thing is he wants to win, to give 100 percent. There was one game against Crystal Palace. We celebrated a goal and some of the players went I stayed back, I was talking to Calum Chambers because there was some tactical stuff. For me, that was more important than celebrating the goal.”"

Now, I am sure that Sanchez was difficult to work with. It was fairly clear to see every time he took the football pitch. There was clear friction between him and others in the team. But for that friction to stem from him wanting to win too much is ridiculous.

This is a professional football team. Their job is to win. These are competitive players who should, in theory, be doing all that they can to win games. How can someone else’s will to win, therefore, however powerful, put off those around them? That is utterly ludicrous.

And this has been a criticism that many people have had regarding the members of this squad for far too long. There is a lack of mental fortitude, desperation to win, and the fight, passion and desire that subsequently follows, to ever rival the far superior and steelier rivals that are winning Premier Leagues.

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Arsenal are a soft football club. Sanchez challenged that. It was a good, if sometimes grating, thing. But Bellerin seems more upset with the dressing room dynamic, not the points on the board, the wins on the table and the trophies in the cabinet. That is very sad indeed.