Mkhitaryan holds key to Sanchez’s Old Trafford switch
The agent of Henrikh Mkhitaryan has claimed Manchester United’s prospects of signing Alexis Sanchez will hinge on the Armenia playmaker joining Arsenal.
But Mino Raiola has claimed that a deal for Mkhitaryan to move to Arsenal is a “long way off ” and that his client will not be pushed into leaving Old Trafford.
Arsenal are believed to want around £35million for Sanchez but United have offered Mkhitaryan – who is valued at a similar fee – to the North London club, who lost out to United for the player when he joined the Manchester club for £26.3million in 2016.
Raiola believes Mkhitaryan would be a “great” signing for Arsenal and has told the club they will need to make the 28-year-old a very good offer. Mkhitaryan has fallen out of favour under Mourinho but Raiola insisted the player has “no problem” with the manager and that Mkhitaryan was not averse to staying at United for the rest of the season and reviewing his options in the summer, when he will enter the final two years of his contract.
Raiola also scoffed at the view that Mkhitaryan is being used as a makeweight in a deal for Sanchez. “Sanchez is part of Mkhi’s deal, not the other way around,” said Raiola, who also represents Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sergio Romero at United. “Without him, Sanchez simply cannot go to United. Mkhi is going to do what is best for him. Mkhi’s problems at Man Utd are purely related to playing football. It is not personal. He doesn’t have to leave.
“This is a great deal for Arsenal. They need better, younger players and they have to invest. So it’s up to Arsenal to put a deal in place and right now a deal is a long way off.”
United are now the front runners to sign Sanchez. Antonio Conte, the Chelsea manager, played down reports that his club were interested. “I don’t know but I don’t think so,” Conte said when asked about it.
Manchester City felt they had an agreement in place with Sanchez after a £60million move collapsed on transfer deadline day last August and were unhappy at how the goalposts shifted, with the player and his agent, Fernando Felicevich, asking for more money. City would be prepared to sign Sanchez if he accepted the terms agreed last summer but United’s bid would have to run into trouble for that to happen.
United are thought to be prepared to meet Sanchez’s demands for a signing-on fee worth up to £20million and a £10million payment to Felicevich.