Remember when Alexis Sanchez was on the brink of signing for Manchester City before he sensationally went to Manchester United instead?In January 2018, Sanchez was involved in a swap deal between Arsenal and United with Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way.It looked to be a good deal for both clubs.It turned out to be a terrible deal for both clubs.Sanchez was a complete flop at Old Trafford, scoring five goals in 45 appearances in all competitions before being shipped out on loan to Inter Milan for this 2019/20 season.Meanwhile, Mkhitaryan didn’t fare much better at Arsenal and so too was sent out on loan to Italy at Roma.
It seems crazy to think that Pep Guardiola and City - who were in the middle of their centurion season - were so desperate to sign Sanchez.But he was and he even admitted that much last week during a rant following his club’s successful appeal against their European ban."We have a lot of money, but we wanted Alexis Sanchez and we could not afford it," Guardiola admitted last week.
But now, they might be able to afford the 31-year-old.Inter are looking to sign the Chilean on a permanent deal and it seems there is no chance of him returning to the Red Devils.But could be returning to Manchester to play for the blue half?According to a sensational report in Chile from LA Cuarta, City have returned to make contact’ with Sanchez’s entourage to find out the conditions needed to sign him from Man Utd.
United apparently want to sell him for £17m but City want to know the contract demands he’s asking Inter for.
At United, Sanchez is currently on £500,000-a-week - a figure City obviously won’t pay.
GIVEMESPORT’s Rob Hoskin says:
Sanchez to leave United to join City? Surely not…
It’s no surprise that Man Utd are looking to cut their losses and offload Sanchez from their wage bill this summer. If he remained at the club for the rest of his contract, he could cost them £50 million.
Sanchez is unlikely going to accept a deal substantially less than those £500,000-a-week wages though and it’ll take a stupid club to stump up that much.
At £17m, you can probably understand why any club would want to take a chance of Sanchez rekindling his Arsenal form. And Guardiola knows Sanchez very well from their time at Barcelona.
But would City pay his astronomical wages and would United be willing to let him join their rivals?
File this under: ‘Extremely unlikely.’