There’s been excitement building in Chile this week about Alexis Sanchez moving to Manchester United.
The coverage has been completely different from that in Europe, with one Chilean newspaper even writing an open letter to Sanchez telling him to sign for Manchester United over their City rivals.
Sanchez is a national hero and Manchester Untied are seen as a huge club in Chile, so there’s been some bemusement at English claims of him being a mercenary.
La Cuarta on Friday cover those claims and the annoyance they say is coming from London, but it’s what they end their article with which will be of most interest: ‘The clear thing is that the tocopillano (where he’s from in Chile) should present himself today at the premises of his new club, do the medical exams and then train under the orders of Jose Mourinho, who could even include a few minutes on Saturday in the duel against Burnley.’
The transfer will be too late for any minutes against Burnley, but there’s clearly a confidence that things should happen today and Sanchez will turn up at Carrington.
Are La Cuarta just taking a punt?
Perhaps, but we doubted the Chilean media a little a few days ago when they said Henrikh Mkhitaryan was holding up the deal, needing some convincing about a move to Arsenal.
Mkhitaryan’s reluctance hadn’t been reported elsewhere at the time, and it now seems they were right about that, so let’s see.
