Arsène Wenger has admitted that if things had worked out differently last summer then Alexis Sánchez would have been lining up for Liverpool against Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday.
The Arsenal manager moved decisively while he was in Brazil working as a World Cup TV pundit to close a £30m deal for Sánchez from Barcelona. The Chile forward has been Arsenal’s player of the season so far, scoring 14 goals in all competitions and making light of any settling-in difficulties.
However, Wenger said that Liverpool had also been on the case, as they prepared for life after the Barcelona-bound Luis Suárez who, coincidentally, had been an Arsenal target the previous summer. Wenger was worried that the Merseyside club might have had the bargaining power. “I thought Liverpool was a serious candidate [for Sánchez] because they had Suárez going there [to Barcelona] so you think that’s an easy way to do the deal,” Wenger said. “But at the end of the day, the player always has the decision.
“Was I worried that Liverpool might get Sánchez? Yes. It could happen. There were some other clubs that were in for him as well. The fact is the transfers at that level today always take time to get every detail right so, because it takes time, you think always that somebody else can come in – [like] Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern [Munich] – to do the deal.”
If things had worked out differently in the summer of last year, Suárez might have been lining up for Arsenal against Liverpool and who knows where Sánchez would have been. Liverpool, though, refused to budge in the face of Arsenal’s infamous £40,000,001 offer. Wenger said that he was happy with how things had worked out in the end, although it would have been a surprise if he had said anything else.
“The history of every big club is made up of many big players that you missed,” Wenger added. “It goes on and sometimes you get another one. I wanted to play Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka together. Maybe, if Anelka had stayed [in 1999], Henry would not have become the player he became. Sometimes, it’s coincidence that decides your destiny.”
Sometimes, it is sheer hard work. Wenger made headlines around the world last summer when he was pictured throwing himself into diving headers on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro but it was not all fun and games for him at the World Cup. He was networking behind the scenes and he said that he had met with Sánchez’s agent a “few times”.
Wenger had followed Sánchez since the player’s days at Udinese and his sales pitch took in how he would fit easily into Arsenal’s style, develop at the club and play regularly, which – to great frustration – had not been the case at Barcelona. Above all, Arsenal could offer him regular Champions League football.
Sánchez, meanwhile, liked the idea of working with Wenger, of playing with Mesut Özil and of living in London. The transfer was concluded relatively quickly after Chile’s last-16 World Cup exit against Brazil on 28 June.
“Sánchez came out from a period where he maybe didn’t have the number of games that he wanted at Barcelona,” Wenger said. “I just tried, like every manager, to convince the player that you can help him to develop the quality of his game and that the way we play football would suit him.
“As well, we have continuity. All the players want to play in the Champions League – it is quite simple. And we have quite a good continuity on that front. At the end of the day, every great player has a choice to go where he wants today. He has chosen us and we are very happy for that.”
Wenger described Sánchez as being “made for the English game” because of his “instinctive and tough” style and he said that he could see the similarities with Suárez. “They are South Americans, they are provoking players, they go with the ball,” Wenger said. “They are very determined as well, both of them. They have plenty of similar attitudes.”
Sánchez’s stamina has stood up admirably to the rigours of English football and Wenger’s reluctance, despite the best of intentions, to take him out of the firing line. Wenger did leave him in London for the club’s final Champions League group tie at Galatasaray on the Tuesday before last while Sánchez was an unused substitute at Aston Villa in September and only a second-half substitute against Tottenham Hotspur later that same month.
However, the statistics show that he has started 22 of Arsenal’s 25 games in all competitions this season, together with six friendlies for Chile, which have been played in North and South America. Two weeks ago, Wenger was worried about Sánchez being in the “red zone” and, with the hectic Christmas and New Year programme looming, he is fearful that the 26-year-old might suffer.
“It’s a shock to the system for everybody who is not used to it,” Wenger said. “You have to say: ‘Be careful. In England, there’s no stop in winter.’ Many of them suffer physically.”
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