Welcome to Old Trafford #7 Alexis Sánchez :)

If there is anyone whose opinion I care less about than Adrian Durham's, it would be hard to find them.

 

Exactly. With the formation we're playing there's basically four attacking roles. With Martial out injured and with what we've seen from Ole it's now Lingard (thoroughly mediocre) 2nd choice for those spots, Dan James (21, played in the championship last year) 3rd choice, AP (best season as a pro 5 goals and 3 assists - and that was 3 years ago in Spain) 4th choice, and then Mata (completely past it) and a bunch of kids (completely untested) as the only depth.

Nobody is saying that Alexis is going to "magically come good". But Juan Mata has appeared in all 3 league games so far. Even at a small fraction of his past ability Sanchez could contribute to this team. Instead we will save a few pounds that the Glazers will just pocket.

 

A small fraction of his past is better than, Mata, Lingard, James etc

 

One Sanchez game when he did delivered Citeh away 2017/18 2 assist and hand in first goal when we were 2 down...

 

Alexis Sanchez's best moment in a Manchester United shirt. 😂 pic.twitter.com/qGa4tprcnV

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) August 28, 2019

 

That piano was witchcrafted, orherwise there is no explanation how player can rockbottom in a week..

 

How Sanchez can be successful at Inter.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...rnazionale-loan-smiling-love?CMP=share_btn_tw

Think Inter will be a better situation for him, on the basis alone that Serie A is not the same as the Prem in terms of the speed and physical intensity (which should suit him well at this stage of his career).
Laurie Whitnell from the Athletic is claiming also that Sanchez's salary, form and just general demeanor had a very dividing effect on the team (he was difficult off the pitch and unproductive on it).
He is also suggesting that United are paying 'just' £6mil off his £16mil yearly salary (40%) contrary to what was said in other reports.

 

The problem obviously came from the fact that he didn't live anywhere near expectations pretty much everyone had of him or came close to justifying being the highest paid player in the league for that matter.
From that perspective it's only normal that other players in the team, especially the top ones started having an issue with the money that Sanchez was being paid. And that's why Dave came and all but said that he wanted at the very least to be on par with Sanchez.
If Sanchez had performed the way he was supposed to and be one of the best players in the Prem, the money he's being paid would have been much less of an issue (probably even a non factor IMO).

 

I didn't say that someone like Dave would not have looked for a much increased salary himself. I said that Sanchez performing as poorly as he did created a situation where not only someone like Dave felt he could ask for a lot more money, but was certainly felt he was justified in doing so (and was in a very strong bargaining position in the process).

 

There's almost literally nothing about the way the club is run at the moment that is satisfying to me, so no.

But I'm dealing in the world of the actual alternatives that are available to us at this moment. We can't go back in time and bring in needed the reenforcements this window. We can't close our eyes and wish real hard and make it so we never signed Sanchez. We can't give Greenwood an aging potion and make him 23 instead of 17. We have the choices we have, and keeping Alexis around to at least swallow Mata's minutes, and offer us some insurance if none of the kids pops was the right choice in my mind.

If he continues to be absolutely awful then the only thing lost is a few Glazer pounds (because if he continues being awful we're not going to be able to sell after this year anyway). If he turns it around even the slightest bit (the argument in favor being: we hardly saw him play under Ole, all our attacking players struggled under Mou, he's a better tactical fit with Ole, by all accounts he had a pretty decent Copa), it could make a real difference to our season given the dross we're giving regular appearances/starts to in his role.

And again I'm not talking about him becoming Arsenal Sanchez again, which is never going to happen. "Better than Dan James" is quite seriously the bar one needs to clear to be our 2nd best attacking player right now. "Better than Juan Mata" is the bar one needs to clear to be our #1 attacking option off the bench. Do I think Alexis could possibly be better than Juan Mata or even, just maybe, Dan James this year? Yeah, I do, and when the cost is just a few million pounds, I think it's worth it to find out.

 

That's actually really nice of him. I guess he is a good guy.

 

I hope this development substantially increases the chances of bringing in Ibahamivoc in January to help us make the push into the top four and/or a EL trophy.

Sanchez never worked out for us (solid theories above in this thread) and maybe never could work out for us, but he did give us another option to consider should both Martial and Rashford go down.

As it stands right now, our squad is a bit thinner that desired. However, if Greenwood and Gomes rise to the challenge quickly that will help fill the holes left behind by Lukaku and Sanchez. And if Fred can summon something like respectable form that will help with the departure of Herrera. There's no chance Garner can make a substantial impact this year, but let's see if he's ready for regular playing time next season.

We more than ably filled the shoes of Valencia with Wan-Bissaka and Maguire already is a massive upgrade on Smalling and Jones, who still draw paychecks but at least aren't causing problems for us.

Fellaini, Ashur's laments notwithstanding, is not missed.

 

We can confirm that Alexis Sanchez joins Inter Milan on loan until 30 June 2020. We wish @Alexis_Sanchez the best of luck in Italy. pic.twitter.com/DdcRQRoEMk

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 29, 2019

Sanchez is officially an Inter player for this coming season. Wishing him the best of luck, in the sense that he does enough for Inter (or another club) to acquire him on a permanent basis next summer.

 

https://www.football-italia.net/142786/sanchez-steal-inter?mobile=off

Hard to disagree with this analysis. It's perfectly understandable why United made the move happen, but for Inter this is potentially a great gift for them. They're hardly taking any risks here and stand to lose very little (a few millions at worst) as they aren't under obligation to buy next July, if they're not satisfied with what they saw from Sanchez.
The upside for them however is just tremendous and honestly this is a deal well struck from Marotta (no question I'd have him as our DoF). One that caps a pretty nice summer for them tbh: apart from getting Sanchez and Lukaku from us, they've signed 2 solid, up and coming CMs (Barella and Sensi), brought in a top veteran in Godin. They've also secured a good, young asset in Skriniar. The only blemish might be that Icardi is still there, but that situation could still change by Monday.
It's not out of the realm of possibility that Sanchez could find himself in some ways in Italy (a league he is familiar with btw) and under Conte. And if he does, Inter could be a team to watch this season. Not bad for a team with pretty limited resources...

If he just can be somewhere in the middle (goalscoring wise), that should do for Inter. Considering how poor he was with us, would have taken double digits goals from him.

 

If Ole doesn't want him why was he not sold and replaced at the start of the window.

Loaning him now is the worst of all possible options. He will return another year older with still two years to go on his stupidly bad contact.

We are reportedly paying most of his wage, which means that Inter have none of the risk, and there is very little upside for us.

It leaves us with even less depth, or needing to sign someone on a free who will likely replicate the same issues.

Ed is like the compounding interest of ******** ups. He ********s something up, is unable to fix it, tries to do something and ********s up again, and then we are twice as worse off.

 

Lol...

 

​

It gets better...

Just hope that Ole is saying that as a means to keep his options open of sorts. Both players could well be forced back onto us, but the hope, especially in Sanchez's case is that we've seen the last of him at United. The guy simply did not want to be here. Already looks much happier in Italy with Big Rom...


​