Manchester City are ready to make Alexis Sanchez their highest earner with a £320,000-a-week contract offer, according to reports.
Arsenal have offered the Chile international a £275,000-a-week deal to stay at the club but the 28-year-old has shown no inclination to extend his stay with the club.
And The Daily Mail now claims that Pep Guardiola’s are ready to blow their Premier League rivals out of the water with a deal which would make him the best-paid player at the Etihad Stadium.
The report also claims that City’s offer will be topped up by performance-related add-ons and image rights which would bring the deal closer to £400,000 a week.
So far this summer, Arsene Wenger has refused to back down over Sanchez’s availability, insisting that the forward will stay with the club even if he refuses to sign a new deal and could therefore leave on a free transfer next summer.
City are reportedly willing to pay £50 million for Sanchez but Guardiola could face competition from Paris Saint-Germain if their deal to sign Neymar from Barcelona does not go through.
On Friday, Sanchez raised doubts over whether he will return to Arsenal on time after claiming that he was ‘sick’ via a post on Instagram.
Sanchez was granted an extended holiday after playing for Chile at the Confederations Cup but is due back to training with Arsenal on Sunday, the same day Wenger’s men face Sevilla in the Emirates Cup.
City remains Sanchez’s preferred destination as he would link back up with Guardiola.
But the City manager has warned that the club’s spending will now ease off.
‘We are going to see if we can buy somebody else,’ said Guardiola.
‘We cannot spend too much [more], we already spent a lot.’
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