Alexis Sanchez has done the dirty on Pep Guardiola by picking Man United
SunSport columnist says morals, principles and trophies have gone out of the window for a huge pay packet
ALEXIS SANCHEZ has sacrificed everything to make this move. Morals. Principles. Trophies.
What a piece of work he is.
Manchester City, working with Pep again, was supposed to be about so much more than money.
Sanchez wanted trophies, to win his first Premier League title after years of failure at Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger, the manager who signed him from Barcelona in 2014, let him down on that score. Pep did not.
City’s manager made good on his promise, coming back for Sanchez on the same terms — salary, signing-on fee and contract length — agreed between them when Arsenal originally pulled the plug on a deal.
In Pep’s eyes, a deal is a deal. Clearly, Sanchez takes a very different view, especially when somebody throws £500,000—per-week his way. He has done the dirty on City.
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Pep knows, whatever he has to say publicly, that his first Premier League title is heading to the Etihad this season.
City, 12 points clear of their nearest rivals, are the big noise in English football right now.
Nothing is expected to change in the short-term.
City have the coach, the squad, the cash, the lot, to make sure they are in the hunt for the big prizes every season. Everything is in place.
The January move for Sanchez took care of the “what if” scenario, the possibility of heading into the deeper territory of the Champions League with a tiring, jaded, fading squad.
Sanchez, fresh and reinvigorated after getting away from the Emirates, was supposed to be the solution in a quarter-final or semi-final against, say, Barcelona or Real Madrid.
Paying Arsenal £20million now, when City have a genuine shot at the Champions League after being paired with Swiss side Basel in the second round, looked money well spent.
It was a risk, but one City’s executives believed was well worth taking.
Sanchez, with his heart set on working with Pep again and playing dreamy football with David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, was up for it. Most would be.
That was until Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis started an auction by punting Sanchez around Europe’s top clubs.
The Chilean forward put money before morals, although United were the only takers.
This is an insurance policy for Jose Mourinho and his executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, ensuring a top-four finish and perhaps a shot at the Premier League next season.
Mourinho, on the verge of signing an extended contract through to 2021, is determined to get the beating of Pep over time.
To do it he has out-manoeuvred City, catching them cold at a time when they were a little bit too confident that a deal for Sanchez was already in the bag. Nothing, especially in this sport, is certain.
In a few weeks’ time, when Sanchez is scoring and creating goals in United colours and the Stretford End is singing his name, this treacherous turncoat will be adored again.
As things stand it is one-up for United and it is not difficult to imagine Mourinho chuckling away with his assistant Rui Faria after pinching Sanchez from under Pep’s nose.
It takes something out of the ordinary for City to walk away from a deal when it comes down to money.
There is unlimited funding in place to make them great, but they took the moral high ground when the bidding war began. They were entitled to.
Sanchez has gone back on his word and the promise to join City at the next available opportunity.
Pep kept his part of the bargain, making good on his vow to sign one of the Premier League’s best players.
Don’t ask him for a character reference.
VAR is bad for FA Cup
THE credibility and integrity of the FA Cup as a serious competition is being chipped away by the random use of VAR in each round.
To use the FA Cup — supposedly the most desirable domestic cup competition in world football — as a testing ground in carefully-selected ties does little to protect its status.
Instead it erodes its standing within the game, an after-thought as managers, players and fans try to get to grips with the technology in some games but not in others.
Referee Graham Scott’s disastrous handling of VAR, along with his own dreadful performance, in the third-round replay between Chelsea and Norwich, invited further scrutiny.
The ad-hoc nature of the device, along with the basic failure to communicate a referral or a decision to the supporters in the stadium is just one of the issues.
That lack of consistency is an obvious failing but to protect the importance of a cup competition, the same rules should apply for each round.
Without it, nobody really knows what they are watching any more.
Reed out question
MANAGERS and coaches must be queuing up to hear from Southampton executive director Les Reed at the LMA’s performance clinic.
Reed, who famously took responsibility for the discovery of Mauricio Pochettino, has been booked to speak alongside Harry Redknapp at Ashton Gate on January 24.
Among a range of topics, one coach intends to pose the hypothetical question whether it is appropriate for the son of an executive director to act as an agent for academy players at the club where his father runs the show.
Courtois cash pot
THIBAUT COURTOIS will become the first Chelsea player to earn more than £200,000 a week when he signs a new contract.
The Blues have always paid their players well in the Abramovich era but they have been overtaken in the pay stakes by Manchester City and Manchester United in recent times.
Keeper Courtois, who has already indicated that he is prepared to stay at Stamford Bridge, will soon become their best-paid player.
Ell to pay, Amanda
AMANDA STAVELEY’S next stop on her endless flirtation with buying a football club is Leeds.
The investor claims she still has an offer on the table to buy Newcastle from Mike Ashley.
But Staveley, who has also failed to get hold of Liverpool, is now eyeing up the Championship side.
The poor fans at Elland Road have been through enough over recent years. They do not need another ownership struggle.
