The future of Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez is the next big saga that looks like it will be solved this January.

Virgil van Dijk finally secured his move to Liverpool for £75m and then, Philippe Coutinho finally got his 'dream' transfer to Barcelona, costing a cool £145m.

Now, it is the Chilean who needs his drawn-out saga ended, with Manchester City looking like his next destination after their interest in him during the summer - they actually had a £60m bid rejected on Deadline Day.

However, Manchester United have now entered the race for the Arsenal man, with Jose Mourinho's side prepared to actually offer more money for him than their noisy neighbours.

Nevertheless, the general consensus was that Sanchez would still choose City, despite the promise of more money at Old Trafford.

Well, think again, because there has been an enormous update in the race between the two Manchester clubs for Sanchez's signature.

According to the Mirror, City have actually pulled themselves out of the race to sign Sanchez as they feel the financial package demanded by Arsenal (£35m fee) is too much for a player with only six months left on his current contract.

City are also reluctant to pay his wages, meaning that their hardline stance has handed the initiative to their bitter city rivals.

The Red Devils have already offered £35m to get him and are prepared to pay whatever financial costs they need to pull off what would be a huge coup for the club.

It appears money really does do the talking in football these days and now, with City not prepared to take risks, Arsenal fans have the very real prospect of Robin van Persie 2.0.

How's Jose going to complain about Pep's spending anymore?