Will we ever forget the images of Alexis Sanchez playing that piano at Old Trafford?

The Chilean wizard swapped a stuttering Arsenal for Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United in January 2018 in a mega-money deal that made him the highest-paid player on English shores.

That was the beginning of the end.

The saddest thing about it all is that that merry little he tune he played that day was probably the happiest moment of his tenure on the red half of Manchester.

Sanchez was simply dreadful in almost every way after the move, eventually falling out of the starting 11 and then the match-day squad completely.

Fans quickly turned on him and it was clear to everyone that he was no longer welcome at the Theater of Dreams.

Now, his Old Trafford nightmare seems to be at an end after Inter Milan secured a loan move for the forward.

However, United are still paying a large proportion of his wages as the deal continues to haunt them.

As part of the rotten deal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan swapped United for Arsenal, and it’s probably fair to say he didn’t fair much better.

The Armenian showed glimpses of the blistering potential he had when at Borussia Dortmund, but he never managed to set the Emirates alight as many would have hoped.

He too fell out of favour with the fans and today has confirmed a loan move to Italian side Roma as a result.

So, 18-months later, does Mkhitaryan’s Italian exodus confirm the infamous swap deal as one of the worst in footballing history?

Absolutely.

It was often an argument as to who got the better end of the deal between the two clubs but now it can be said without a doubt that it was neither.

Both clubs drew the shortest of short straws.

The two me will now be desperate to put the last few months behind them and get back to the business of playing football.

Arsenal and United will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief, and will probably avoid any similar deals in future.