It’s fair to say it’s not been a great 24 hours for Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez.
A day ago, Sanchez was still tucked up in bed waiting for the morning to come in Chile. With it came optimism and the Chilean media, who by this stage were fully bought into a Manchester City transfer, were full of excitement.
Sanchez was off to Manchester City, would play in a super team assembled by Pep Guardiola, and win all before him. They’d felt like this about Arsenal but that faded over the years.
The feeling was jubilant when La Tercera reported Sanchez had told his Chile teammates the Manchester City transfer was happening. Gathering them all before training, Sanchez shared the happy news of his Arsenal transfer, and was met with applause.
Next, said La Tercera, was for Sanchez to celebrate on the pitch against Paraguay, and help make Chile’s wobbly World Cup Qualifying a little more secure.
In the end, the Arsenal to Manchester City move never happened, and Chile were beaten 3-0 at home.
El Mercurio brings the Chile feeling together and point out that Sanchez had a ‘funeral’ face after his failed move. La Tercera say Sanchez was part of a Chile front three which ‘did not exist’.
Calling it the ‘double frustration of Sanchez’ the same newspaper goes on to explain: ‘The second half does not change the picture. The tocopillano offers some spark of his quality, but never ends up becoming that decisive player that Chile needs, for whose services Manchester City and Arsenal had just fought for.
‘With his arms around his waist, exhausted by so much barren effort, Alexis hears the final whistle. And he looks at the scoreboard. Paraguay has won 0-3. The points fly to Guaraní lands, and he is probably wondering, as he looks down at the grass, why he is the only one who has not moved from home.’
Ah well.
