IT’S OUR FAULT
Blame us for Sanchez drug test no-show, says Wenger
ARSENE WENGER has claimed Arsenal are at fault for Alexis Sanchez missing a drugs test on the day of his move to Manchester United but insisted they have ‘nothing to hide’.
It is still unclear whether the FA or UK Anti-Doping will take any action against the 29-year-old Chilean, or whether he will have a strike against his name for a ‘whereabouts’ failure. Players who miss three drugs tests in a 12-month period face a two-year ban.
But Wenger yesterday defended Sanchez, saying he sympathised with his former player. Thehe Frenchman accepted the responsibility may lie with Arsenal as Sanchez had not signed his £600,000-a-week contract with United when testers arrived at Arsenal’s training ground on Monday.
The Arsenal boss said: ‘ Onn Monday there was a lot goingg on and it was a special day for Alexis Sanchez. You have to do paperwork, you have to travel. Is he still our player on Monday or not?
‘You don’t know, negotiations are going on. It is a special event for him to miss a drugs test as he was certainly busy somewhere else with his agent. Although he has been tested so many times here, it is no worry for me that he has any doping problem. It was just a bad day for him to be tested.
‘Honestly, on the administration side, certainly it will still be our responsibility. On the day he had not moved so maybe it will be down to us.’
Meanwhile, talks between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund over £53million-rated striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have hit a brick wall.
The two clubs are ‘ not close’ to an agreement meaning Olivier Giroud is set to stay at Arsenal.
Wenger said: ‘I cannot tell you more. Will anything else happen? It’s still possible but we are far from being close. At the moment we are not close to signing anybody.’