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Arsenal offered chance to sign £200,000-a-week playmaker – will Wenger take it?

By on January 11, 2018

According to the Guardian, Manchester United have entered the chase to sign Alexis Sanchez and have offered Arsenal the chance to sign Henrikh Mkhitaryan in exchange for the Chilean attacker.

Sanchez is fully expected to leave Arsenal this month and has been tipped to finally join Manchester City after a proposed move collapsed on deadline day back in the summer.

However, it seems United are looking to hijack their rivals’ deal as the Guardian claim they’ve opened talks with Arsenal and trumped City’s £20m offer by putting £25m on the table.

The newspaper says United are also willing to offer Alexis a contract worth more than the £250,000-a-week City have put forward and Jose Mourinho is believed to be confident he can persuade Sanchez to opt for Old Trafford.

It remains to be seen whether that will be the case but Arsenal may have an incentive to do business with United as the Guardian claim they have also offered us the opportunity to sign Mkhitaryan in exchange for Sanchez’s signature.

It’s not exactly clear how this player swap-deal proposal is structured as some suggest it’s a straight swap while other media outlet’s claim United are prepared to offer Mkhitaryan and a small amount of money.

Either way, I think this is a deal that may tempt Wenger as he’s been a long-term fan of Mkhitaryan’s and we came close to signing him when he left Borussia Dortmund in 2016.

The Armenian international is a top class playmaker who would fit in well with our style of play and he could be the ideal replacement for Mesut Ozil if the German doesn’t sign a new deal.

alexis sanchez arsenal

However, the Guardian say the main stumbling block over any move is Mkhitaryan’s £200,000-a-week wages as Arsenal are unlikely to match what United are paying him – which is probably one of the reasons he chose them over us in the first place.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this saga develops but I don’t really have a preference over whether Sanchez joins United or City. Ordinarily I’d much rather see him join City as I hate United but Sanchez will lift the title if he goes to the Etihad. Whereas he could end up in the Europa if he goes to United!

The deciding factor could be that if we’re going to lose Alexis to a rival it would be nice to get a player of Mkhitaryan’s quality in exchange so I think it would be a great piece of business if we could do a swap deal involving the two this month.