Manchester City fume at ‘shambolic’ Arsenal after Alexis Sanchez deal collapses late on
The Gunners decided not to sell their star man when it became apparent their pursuit of Thomas Lemar was doomed to fail
MANCHESTER CITY are furious with Arsenal following the collapse of the Alexis Sanchez deal late last night.
The Gunners opted to keep Sanchez after failing in their own last-minute attempts to sign Thomas Lemar from Monaco.
Lemar showed Arsenal supporters what they were missing by scoring his first two goals for France in their 4-0 World Cup qualifying win over Holland - the first of which was a sublime volley.
Arsenal made an 11th-hour effort to sign the 21-year-old in a club-record deal, reportedly worth £92million, but did not have time to get the transfer over the line.
It is believed Lemar actually favoured a move to Liverpool as they could offer him Champions League football.
That meant Chilean forward Sanchez was prevented from joining City as Arsenal were only prepared to let him leave if they recruited a big-name replacement.
City had reportedly tabled a bid worth up to £60m but Sanchez will now remain at Arsenal with his contract expiring at the end of the season.
And a source told MailOnline that Arsenal's communications with City was "shambolic" after things went quiet late afternoon.
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Talks were complicated by the fact Lemar was involved in France’s crunch qualifier against Holland – hours before the 11pm deadline.
Liverpool were also in the hunt for the 21-year-old as they sought an alternative to Barcelona target Coutinho.
But the Reds were also unable to strike a last-gasp deal – torching the Brazilian’s move to Spain.
Man City left it late in the day to try and prise Sanchez – who is out of contract next summer – away from Arsenal.
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And the delay cost pep Guardiola as Gunners chiefs snubbed their approach.
Boss Arsene Wenger insisted he would prefer to lose Sanchez for nothing in 2018 than cave in to the contract rebel.
And unless the Chile international has a major U-turn, he will be free to speak to clubs in January - with Man City set to go back in again for the 28-year-old Chilean.