Alexis Sanchez made the move from Arsenal to Manchester United in January 2018, but the star admitted he wanted to go back to north London after just one day at Old Trafford
Alexis Sanchez previously revealed that he wanted Manchester United to rip up his contract after just one day in the North West. The star forward, who switched sides in 2018, made his Premier League debut with Arsenal four years prior, scoring 80 goals in 166 games for the Gunners before the Red Devils came knocking.
Sanchez was initially set to join Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City midway through the 2017/18 campaign, but when the deal fell through he instead opted to join the ranks of the Old Trafford elite. And while the Chilean, now 35, had high hopes of continuing his run of good form at the Theatre of Dreams, he got off to an incredibly rocky start under Jose Mourinho
Speaking on Instagram about the move, Sanchez said: “Before, I had an agreement with Man City, but due to football issues, I accepted the opportunity to go to United. It felt tempting and it was something good for me.
“I liked this club a lot when I was a kid. Eventually, I signed but I didn’t ask for information on what was happening inside the club. Sometimes there are things that you don’t realise until you get there and I remember the first training session I had, I realised a lot of things.”
After having his eyes opened to how United ran things at Carrington, Sanchez admitted that he wanted to return to Arsenal and even asked his agent if his contract could be ripped up. He went on: “After the session I got home and I told my family and my agent: ‘Can you not rip up the contract to go back to Arsenal?’
“They laughed, I told them there’s something that doesn’t sit right, it doesn’t seem good. But I already signed, I was already there. After the first few months I carried on having the same feeling, we weren’t united as a team in that moment.”
To say that Sanchez’s spell at United was disastrous would be an understatement. He scored just five goals in 45 games for the Red Devils before his contract was mutually terminated two years early so he could move to Inter Milan on a free. Two years in Italy proved far more fruitful, as he found the back of the net 20 times in 109 games before moving to Marseille in the summer of 2022.
Alexis returned to the San Siro in 2023 for a year where he scored just four in 33 games across all competitions before making the move to Udinese this summer. Nursing calf problems, he is yet to feature for the Serie A side and is not expected to return until mid-October.
While it was United who suffered from the Sanchez deal, Arsenal themselves have been known to have made some calamitous signings over the years, including the club-record acquisition of Nicolas Pepe for £72million in 2019. While Pepe set Ligue 1 alight with Lille prior to his move to the Emirates Stadium, scoring 35 league goals in 74 games from the right wing, he failed to cut the mustard in the Premier League.
The Ivory Coast international scored just 16 goals in 80 appearances in the English top flight, even being loaned out to Nice in his last season with the club in 2022/23 before leaving for Trabzonspor on a free despite having a year left on his contract. However,
Arsenal appear to have turned it around with transfers in recent years under Edu and Mikel Arteta, focusing on youth development and bringing in younger players who have proven themselves in the Premier League prior, like Declan Rice and Kai Havertz.
And when Arsenal have recruited older players of late, they haven’t broke the bank for them – Leandro Trossard cost £27million from Brighton at the age of 28, while Jorginho only set the Gunners back £12million. United, on the other hand, have had their fair share of terrible transfers in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era – most notably signing Paul Pogba for a world-record fee of £89million from Juventus in 2016 before letting him return to his former club on a free six years later.
More recently, Jadon Sancho arrived at Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund for £73million in 2021, and has failed to find his feet in a red shirt since. He has scored just 12 goals in 83 games for the side, and is currently on a season-long loan with Premier League rivals Chelsea where he will hope to make his mark.
