Serie A giants emerge as potential suitors for Arsenal star
Inter have emerged as a potential destination for wantaway Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez, according to Gazzetta dello Sport via the Independent.
The Chilean sensation is widely expected to leave the Gunners this summer, with Manchester City believed to be leading the race to secure his services.
Arsenal, though, would prefer to sell the 28-year-old abroad and not to a Premier League rival and while Bayern Munich were previously interested, the Bundesliga champipns were put off by Alexis’ wage demands and the Gunners’ £50m asking price.
The north London side are still holding out hope that Alexis will sign a new deal at the Emirates, though it’s been reported that Alexis is asking for £400,000 a week to stay with Arsenal.
Alexis has only 12 months left on his current contract and Arsenal would rather sell this summer than lose him on a free next year if he opts against extending his stay in the capital.
Inter have now emerged as a possible suitor for Alexis, with the Serie A side, backed by billionaire owners Suning, dreaming of making a “poster boy” signing during the off season.
Indeed, Arsenal’s desire to avoid selling to a Premier League rival could see them accept a smaller bid from Inter in order to deny City from securing his services.
cont...- If he wants to leave for purely footballing reasons then Bayern is the only club spoken about in the media who would be good enough. They are clearly better than us whereas City aren't. Inter Milan are considerably worse than both aforementioned prem teams, so if he leaves for them then it is all about the money. If they want to pay £50m then I wouldn't mind him going if he is adamant. He is a great player but Lionel Messi is the only truly irreplaceable player in world football. I completely believe Wenger when he says he would rather Alexis stayed for this season and went on a free than was sold to City. In the past, I wouldn't have but with almost 78% of Arsenal fans believing he should not have been offered a new contract in the first place, he is going to do everything to prevent dissent in the stands. I believe Sanchez is professional enough that he'd give his all next season if told he is to stay because no non-prem teams have made a suitable bid.
I really hate football agents. I'm sure that if Alexis was doing the negotiating himself, he would sign the (Estimated) £280-300k/week contract which is on the table. I wouldn't advocate players negotiating themselves unless they were savvy, purely because football owners want to pay the least amount possible in every situation- which is understandable since they run it as a business. I do think having seen Kolasinac and Lacazette join with 1 of Lemar/Mahrez and possibly even Goretzka due to, added to the fact Mesut seems more than happy to spend at least this season here and then negotiate a deal next summer, Alexis would view us as a title-challenging club but it is almost certain his agent has gotten in his ear telling him to up the wage demands (which in turn would result in a larger agent fee). I don't see why he would want to play for Pep, a manager who didn't get anywhere near the best out of him and resorted to making the gameplan for him to pass it to Xavi, Iniesta or Messi.