Arsene Wenger has said that a decision has been made not to sell Alexis Sanchez.

  • New contract or not, Alexis will not be sold this summer
  • Wenger said player’s comments in Chile were mistranslated
  • He denied similarities to Robin van Persie’s situation in 2012

On and on the saga goes, with Wenger now reiterating the club will not sell the Chilean this summer, regardless of his contract situation.

“The decision has been made and we will stick to that. The decision is not to sell,” he said at his pre-Bayern Munich press conference in China.

Wenger seemed to be in belligerent mood over the whole thing, especially when it came to Alexis’ recent comments about the Champions League.

“I don’t give too much importance to things that are translated, you know. The whole interview that I got didn’t really mean that.

“The main focus for us is to concentrate on the Premier League and the Premier League for me today is more important than the Champions League.

“We rested sometimes players in the Group stages of the Champions League for the Premier League so that’s become the biggest importance for us.

“For the rest… we played 20 years in the Champions League, that’s 17 years before Sanchez arrived and three years with him so he can get us back in there.”

While the claim that the translation wasn’t accurate seems a bit far-fetched, Wenger was keen to point out that Alexis was and is part of the collective effort to get into the Champions League.

Several of the Arsenal players will have been upset about losing out, but so far Alexis seems to be the only complaining about it.

Wenger went on to deny the similarities between Alexis’ situation and Robin van Persie’s situation back in 2012.

“Every case is different, Van Persie was going from 30 to 31, when he left he had one year on his contract. Sanchez is younger.”

One big difference is that, as yet, Alexis hasn’t posted an open letter claiming how unhappy he is with the club’s direction. Nor has he tried to dictate which players Arsenal should sign, as far as we know. The club is in a strong position financially as well, unlike last time.

Speculation about Alexis will continue throughout the summer and, should he stay, throughout most of next season as well.