Sanchez has to prove he is United class
ALEXIS SANChEZ was a big fish in a small pool at Arsenal. They are an elite club, yes, but Sanchez was far and away their best player. Meaning, when things did not go well, he could act the victim.
hands on hips, or thrown in the air in frustration — the universal sign language for being surrounded by incompetents.
It is harder to swing that at Manchester United. Now, Sanchez’s team-mates are players who would walk into Arsenal’s team: Marcus rashford, romelu Lukaku, Juan Mata, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, Nemanja Matic, even Marouane Fellaini.
It may be a team in transition, as Jose Mourinho claims, but it is not one in which Sanchez can bemoan his misfortune or the shortcomings of others. he needs to prove himself a Manchester United player.
Sanchez admits he has come up short so far, but offers mitigation. ‘The change of clubs was something that was very abrupt,’ he says. Except it wasn’t.
There was speculation about Sanchez leaving Arsenal for several years. he will have been aware of that and played like a man who was on his way for much of this season.
It is unthinkable that he was not kept abreast of developments by his agent, Fernando Felicevich, or that interested clubs did not sound out his representative over fees and personal terms. Presuming that information was passed on, a January transfer cannot have been a surprise.
Equally, once the ball was rolling, the move did not happen overnight.
In November, it was known Manchester City would bid for Sanchez, amid interest from Manchester United, and the Old Trafford deal was not completed until January 22.
he had a lot of time to get his head around his transfer — even if he initially imagined he would be playing for Pep Guardiola, in blue.
So he has a lot of ground to cover. he can’t just stand, disgusted and persuade the world how great he could be, if only his team-mates were better.
With United’s red shirt comes significant expectations. having acted like he was too big for Arsenal, it would be an irony if Manchester United proved too big for Sanchez.