Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been told to find room for Alexis Sanchez in his squad next season, which is unfortunate but shows that the player will form an indelible mark on Ed Woodward’s career at the Old Trafford club. In January 2018, when the club swapped the player for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, it seems like a good decision.
18 months later, it was clear that the move was a failure with the player offering little to the club, despite many wanting him to succeed. The player has two-years remaining on his contract at the club, meaning United are liable for his huge weekly wage which is a deterrent for clubs seeking to loan or buy him in the summer. Solskjaer once had this to say about Sanchez:
“Sometimes when you decorate your living room it might be a nice chair or nice sofa but it maybe doesn’t go with the rest of it.
“Of course there’s a place for good players and good people in this environment.
“Let’s see where we get to after the season, because we do feel this squad is exciting. We do feel we’re on the way to something.
“It’s up to all the players when they’re here to do well, because there’s always talk of people coming in and out, and it’s about gelling this group together.”
Sanchez was loaned to Inter Milan for the entirety of the 2019/20 season, which was hit with injury, like his time way at United and Arsenal before that (the latter part of his time there, obviously). Sanchez has made just 16 appearances, scoring one goal and three assists. It would seem that unless United can find a loan deal for him, he might still remain.
Sanchez has done some good things at United but there are very few of them to mention, This is the problem. He has experience but just does not fit into the team and I don’t believe that he ever has. It is just another one of those mistakes that Woodward has made and hopefully he could be the last with some major lessons learned for the executive vice-chairman.
It is expected that United would have to pay the player £24 million in order to release him from his contract at the club, which is money that could be spent better at this moment in time, like using it to help fund a move for a right-winger, which would give United a better attacking sense, fixing a problem that has been at the club for years.
So, with that option off the table, Sanchez will either be the frustrated figure at the club who is seldom picked to play first team matches, or the club seeks to find a deal whereby they can loan him for another year, with a proportion of his wages being paid by the loan club, saving United a little money but a lot of frustration. It is a shame it worked out like this.
