CENTURION STOKES IS UP FOR SCRAP
Wenger’s message for £140k-a-week Sanchez
ARSENE WENGER is set to send Alexis Sanchez out at Liverpool tomorrow to start the last year of his £140,000a-week contract with the message that he is expected to give the club what they are paying him for.
On the flip-side, Alex OxladeChamberlain will discover today whether he will be also forced to see out his current deal after refusing a £180,000-a-week offer.
The England international is a £40million Chelsea target with BEN STOKES admitted England are in a fight at Headingley after West Indies came out swinging in the second Test yesterday The tourists, Liverpool also interested. The player rejected chief executive Ivan Gazidis’s final offer and the board will decide with Wenger if they can afford to let him walk away for nothing at the end of the season or whether to cash in on him now.
But manager Wenger insists Sanchez must knuckle down. “In a professional job I always think that you have to make sure with your commitment that savagely criticised for their limp defeat at Edgbaston, rolled England over for 258 on the opening day in Yorkshire. Stokes, left, who hit a defiant 100, was dropped on 98 by Shannon Gabriel – and then got a verbal send-off from the pace bowler when he eventually dismissed him two runs later. “He was still probably a bit annoyed with himself for dropping me. It’s international sport, we’re all trying to do well and emotions can come out,” said Stokes.
“We said in the changing rooms that it wasn’t one of our best days with the bat but it’s all up to how we respond tomorrow.”
West Indies closed on 19-1 in reply and bowler Kemar Roach said: “We weren’t good enough in the first Test so we have a point to prove.”