What’s the story?
Arsenal and Chile superstar Alexis Sanchez is not a happy cat. He’s not best pleased by the fact that his teammates don’t seem to have the same all-consuming will to win that makes him, well, him, or by the fact that Arsenal aren’t making any moves to suggest that they are in fact a club that matches his ambitions. Another small thorn in the side that despite almost single-handedly manning the attack for the Gunners, he makes less than 40% of what Paul Labile Pogba does for getting a haircut-a-day at Old Trafford. It irks him plenty.
Atletico Madrid have seen this, and as per the Sun, are prepared to roll out the cash, and the red carpet, in a bid to lure him back to sunny Spain.
In case you didn’t know
Alexis Sanchez has been disgruntled for a while – and has not made efforts to hide his discontent with what he perceives as a lack of a winning mentality at the Emirates. The Chilean all-action superstar
The heart of the matter
Atletico Madrid, too, are in a fix with Manchester United seemingly hell bent on obtaining the services of Antoine Griezmann. While neither club nor player has shown any indication at all that they want to part ways, what has made the club great over the years is their ability to prepare for the worst case scenario – and that’s how they’ve handled the departures of such luminaries as Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero, Radamel Falcao, and Diego Costa.
In the wake of this, their contingency plan is to lure Sanchez to Atletico Madrid. Assuming Manchester united cough up a price that is in the range of Griezmann’s release clause, which is set at £86 million, Atletico will have enough and more cash to bankroll the move for the Chilean. They are willing to offer him a weekly wage of £220,000 (nearly a 100,000 more than what he earns currently) and are also planning to offer Arsenal £35 million to convince them to let him go.
What next?
Arsenal have already offered a new contract for Sanchez worth £160,000-a-week, but the Chilean is yet to accept these fresh terms.This leaves plenty of room for Atletico’s master negotiators to manoeuvre themselves into a position of power.
Sportskeeda’s Take
No one will ever accuse a Diego Simeone side of lacking the mentality to win at all costs, and that could be one of the major factors that will play in Sanchez’s head if he is going to consider the move. El Cholo’s future is also unsure, with many linking the Argentine to a move to another one of his former clubs – Inter Milan. With this one move, he could be convinced to stay as it would signal the right intent from Atletico’s boardroom and key decision makers.
A win-win for the club, if ever there was one... but Arsenal should do their best to avoid this happening if they are to be taken seriously as Premier League winning material anytime in the near future.
