Gunners go big to keep hold of Alexis Sanchez
The claims in the do not indicate whether the sensational move has the approval of manager Arsene Wenger, whose relationship with chief executive Ivan Gazidis has cooled in recent weeks as the Frenchman dithers over announcing his intention to remain or resign as manager.
Sanchez’s representatives have already told Arsenal they expect their client to be on a contract par with the Premier League’s other top earners — headed by Manchester United’s Paul Pogba on just under £300,000 (€353,000) a week — and it is claimed the Gunners have now indicated they will shatter their wage structure to keep him at the club.
If Sanchez rejects the bold offer, there is a list of suitors ready and willing to pay a fee expected to be in the region of £50m (€59m) for his services — headed by Manchester City, Chelsea and Paris St Germain.
As things stand, Mesut Ozil is the highest earner at the Emirates, drawing down £140,000 (€165,000) a week against Sanchez’s £130,000 (€153,000), but the offer to the Chilean will smash Wenger’s carefully managed ceiling on wages in the club — and could lead to open season from other players with their contracts up for renewal in the short-term.
Despite a souring of relations between Sanchez and some of his colleagues in recent weeks, the club’s top brass believe the time has come to make a statement on the retention of their stellar talent, the only Arsenal player who would make it into the current Tottenham XI, according to former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp.
In his Standard column, Redknapp claimed the main reason the balance of power had swung this season was the millions wasted by the Gunners on recent transfers.
“Arsenal spent nearly £90m (€106m) last summer putting what were supposed to be the finishing touches to a squad capable of winning the league but the two big signings, Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka, have been very, very poor. The injured Laurent Koscielny aside, the back-four is worthy of a bottom-eight team, not top four. Mustafi and Gabriel were bashed around by Christian Benteke when Crystal Palace beat Arsenal 3-0 on Monday and everyone could see it coming.”
Redknapp added: “Mesut Ozil goes missing too often and some of the other players have probably been there too long now. For some reason, Arsene keeps sticking up for them and showing faith in them but maybe he needs to threaten to get rid of a few. It is not as if they are winning things every year. A lot of them are lucky to be playing for Arsenal. Sometimes players need a rocket up their backside but I’m told Arsene doesn’t like confrontation. He likes to keep a steady, happy ship but when you aren’t winning, you have to do something about it. There’s talk of Arsenal bringing in a sporting director but, if Arsene stays, is he going to listen to Francis Cagigao, a kid he appointed years ago, or Marc Overmars who used to play for him? Maybe they have a younger manager in mind.”
Ozil, meanwhile, wants to put all talk of his future on hold until the summer.
“At the moment it would be wrong to think about that,” he said about a new contract at Arsenal. The team are having a more difficult spell and at this stage I am not important, no other player is important, what is important is the club.
“We’ve got aims we want to meet this season, there is still lots for us to play for. We still desperately want to qualify for the Champions League for next season as well.
“We will talk in the summer and clear things then but at the moment what is important is Arsenal, not me or any other players.”
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