Why Arsenal Should Do Their Best To Hold On To Alexis Sanchez Despite The Chilean’s Transfer Request
Alexis Sanchez has always been a really special player. Ever since he started off his career in Chile with Cobreloa, he’s been making the headlines. Moves to Colo Colo in Argentina and Udinese in Italy followed, where he didn’t fail to impress. In fact, he simmered to such a level where Barcelona eventually picked him up from there.
His stay at Barcelona was successful enough but he always was in the shadow of Lionel Messi. Neymar’s arrival soon made him an outcast in the side and he arrived on English shores where Arsenal picked him up for £35million. He did well in his first few outings and simply hasn’t stopped from there.
He’s picked up from where he’s started and has excelled throughout his Arsenal career, so much so that the Gunners now face a battle to keep him at the Emirates stadium, with the Chilean forward expecting as much as £400,000-a-week to stay put at Arsenal. The Gunners have always faced trouble with keeping their best stars at the club and the situation has repeated itself with 3 players this summer; namely Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanchez himself.
Wenger must look to keep hold of these stars as they are all pivotal to the team’s success, especially Sanchez, who stands out as the main world class player in the squad. The situation shouldn’t have come to what it has, but Arsenal find themselves in knee-deep trouble in their pursuit of keeping hold of these star players. Alexis is clearly motivated to be at a club that fights for the highest honours.
Alexis had reportedly submitted a transfer request following Arsenal’s 4-0 mauling at the hands of Liverpool. However, Arsenal have denied those claims. Manchester City have been linked with a £60m move for him, so have PSG but the Parisians are close to signing Kylian Mbappe and with Neymar having already arrived at the club, that’s likely to end their pursuit of Sanchez. With all the love that’s been showered on Alexis at Arsenal, he should remain loyal to the club but ever since his contract negotiations got initiated, it’s been downhill for Arsenal.
Sanchez appeared scantily in pre-season and started Arsenal’s weekend clash against Liverpool, where he was substituted well before the end of 90 minutes. All this doesn’t make for good-reading for Arsenal fans as they appear to be teary-eyed in their pursuit of holding on to the Chilean blockbuster. There’s another problem in the hut that is Alexis Sanchez – he has never been a leader of sorts. Be it at any of his former clubs or in the Chilean national team, he has never taken up the role of a leader and this is something that should worry Arsene Wenger.
3 seasons into his Arsenal career, at 28, Alexis still isn’t considered as one of the natural leaders in the Gunners squad. His reluctance to learn English too hasn’t helped his or the club’s cause. All these form a very big mountain of problems that Arsene Wenger is currently facing in his pursuit of keeping hold of Sanchez.
So Arsenal must do their best in order to keep Sanchez at the club. Alexis and Ozil have been the reason for Arsenal doing so well of late and keeping them both at the club will help in their pursuit of the Premier League title and the Europa League as well. However, their main priority should be to tie Alexis down for a few more seasons as the player is in his peak in terms of his career and could help the team win the big trophies.