With Wednesday’s rather surprising news that Arsenal had put the contract renewals of both Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez on hold until the summer, fans started panicking a little bit more than before about their stars potentially leaving.
Considering both players’ contracts come to an end in 2018, this summer is incredibly crucial, as the Gunners will have to decide to either throw a lot of money at them, or sell them before they go on a free next year.
While Mesut Özil has made it very clear that his desire to renew revolves around whether or not Arsène Wenger stays at the Emirates, Alexis Sanchez has not.
In fact, according to Corriere dello Sport on Thursday, the Chile international has actually made his mind up, and will not be signing a new contract with Arsenal.
Unhappy with Wenger, and with a relationship between the two said to be very difficult to salvage, Sanchez is likely to force a move out of the London club this summer, and the Gunners have fixed the price at €30m due to him only having one year left on his deal.
Making a loss on the now 28-year-old, Arsenal don’t really have a choice, and Juventus, hence the report from Corriere, are keen to save the Chilean to help him win regular titles, something he never managed to do under Wenger.
As for the personal side of things, Juventus expect to get something done, with Sanchez allegedly ready to make compromises wage wise as the Italian side prepare a four-year deal for him.
Contacts between the two sides are allegedly set to take place over the coming weeks, at the same time as negotiations with Lyon regarding Corentin Tolisso.
Arsenal, needing to replace their departing forward, are now said by Corriere to be looking at Alexandre Lacazette and Kylian Mbappé.
Replacing Sanchez with either of these will prove to be costly as they’ll need to shell out €60m for the former, and more for the latter.
Of course, all of this remains pure speculation, and the Chilean star could still sign a new deal, but as things stand, this looks like it could be yet another excruciating summer for Arsenal fans on the transfer front.
