SANCHEZ FURY
City fume over Wenger failure to agree deal
MANCHESTER CITY were left seething at Arsenal’s handling of Alexis Sanchez last night after a dramatic £60million deadline-day move fell flat.
Sanchez was sat inside Santiago’s Estadio Monumental David Arrellano ready to sign for Pep Guardiola’s team ahead of Chile’s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay last night.
The 28-year-old believed a deal was set before being denied by Arsenal’s failure to land Monaco winger Thomas Lemar for an eye-watering £92m.
City had officials on hand in South America to oversee Sanchez’s transfer. They were given encouragement at around 10am that Arsene Wenger was some way down the line in finalising a replacement.
The respective chief executives, Ivan Gazidis
and Ferran Soriano had been in dialogue all summer but City did not make their first formal offer of £50m until Tuesday.
Arsenal argue they were left with too little time to sign Lemar. It became clear yesterday afternoon that the France international wanted Champions League football and had designs on joining Liverpool.
That left City sources flabbergasted, baffled that Wenger’s team had not done their due diligence in their pursuit of Lemar.
Communication from the Emirates Stadium went quiet early in the afternoon and one source slammed Arsenal as ‘shambolic’.
Wenger had suggested throwing in Raheem Sterling as part of the deal on Tuesday but Guardiola made it clear to Soriano he would prefer a straight cash transfer.
It leaves Sanchez, whose contract runs out at the end of the season, in a state of flux until January at least. City are likely to test Arsenal’s resolve again in the winter transfer window.
Sanchez was disappointed at not sealing an Arsenal exit and is highly unlikely to pen new terms, making him available on a free transfer next summer.
City are, however, wary that Sanchez could opt to sign elsewhere next summer, particularly after Dani Alves went back on his verbal pledge to join City and signed for Paris Saint-Germain instead.
But Guardiola hopes his persistence over the last few weeks has laid the foundations for a future reunion with a player he coached at Barcelona.
Deadline day was laced with disappointment at the Etihad Stadium after another target, Jonny Evans, remained at West Brom.
Evans — who flew to San Marino with Northern Ireland for tonight’s World Cup qualifier — was another ready to sign but that was dependant on Eliaquim Mangala departing City and West Brom finding a new central defender.
Crystal Palace were in talks to sign Mangala and saw a bid rising to £23m accepted, but the former Porto defender stayed at City.
Wilfried Bony did bring an end to a disastrous two-year spell in the North West, re- signing for Swansea City in a deal worth £12m. Jason Denayer went on loan to Galatasaray.
Another deal involving City saw 17-year-old wonderkid Jadon Sancho, who was desperate to leave the club, head to Borussia Dortmund for an initial £8m.
The Bundesliga club could have signed him for £190,000 on scholarship terms but plan to throw Sancho straight into the first team, handing him the No 7 shirt.