Alexis Sanchez is causing conundrums at Manchester United
Manchester United are spending a huge part of their financial kitty on Alexis Sanchez who is turning out to a liability less than a year after signing for them.
Manchester United signed Alexis Sanchez in January this year in an astonishing swap deal from Arsenal, which included Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way. The Chile international was expected to be a vital cog in the Red Devils’ attack and hence, he was made the Premier League’s highest paid player with a reported wage of 500,000 weekly pounds. Ed Woodward coughed out such a heavy salary to the winger as United did not have to pay a heavy transfer fee for Sanchez.
However, the Chilean has been a debacle at the Old Trafford since his arrival. Sanchez has scored only four league goals for Manchester United in 20 appearances over the last eleven months. He did score the winner in their comeback win over Newcastle United four weeks ago, but that was his first and only goal of the season.
The 29-year-old has compelled Jose Mourinho to leave him out of the starting eleven. The blunt went a little too far on Sanchez when he was left out of Jose’s 18 man squad in United’s loss against West Ham at the London Stadium. In a nutshell, the former Barcelona and Udinese winger has failed to live up to the wage that is being paid to him.
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Indirectly, that has led to a tossing of Manchester United’s financial structure and they are being unable to fulfil demands of vital players such as Anthony Martial and David De Gea. Both the players run out of their contracts at the end of this season. Albeit there is an option with Man United to automatically trigger a year’s extension, the idea is to keep the duo associated with the club for long.
Anthony Martial, who is currently on a rate of 75,000 pounds a week, wants double the money to renew his stay at the Old Trafford. David De Gea earns 175,000 pounds per week and is looking to touch the 300k threshold if he is to commit to the Red Devils. While Mourinho is urging the Frenchman to sign a new deal, he isn’t so confident about De Gea’s stay.
"“I am not confident,” he told Sky Sports. “I cannot find the word in English, but let’s see what happens. Only the club, David and his people can answer that. My comment is only that everyone knows how good he is, how important he is for Manchester United and, if the club want to be better than it is and not worse, obviously it would be very important to keep David.”"
Mourinho also urged Martial to pen a new deal after his upturn in form.
"“I don’t belong to the discussions of contracts,” Mourinho said. Obviously I hope we will agree. He is a talented player – everybody has known that since he was at Monaco. Another thing is a talented player with consistency and understanding what a football match is in the globality.”"
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It is clearly unsure whether the two star men will sign new deals, but things for Manchester United would surely have been a lot easier when negotiating contracts if they had not been excessive and rash in their offerings to Alexis. What’s worse for Ed Woodward is that there is no team even willing to take the 29-year-old away from Manchester United due to his growth hitting a snag at the Old Trafford. To conclude in one sentence- Alexis Sanchez is the embodiment of Manchester United’s wage issues and things would have been a lot different had he been offered a reasonable salary in direct parity with his performances.