Arsenal have rejected a £50m bid from Manchester City for Alexis Sanchez, according to latest reports.
Sky Sports and the BBC are both reporting the news that City have made a straight cash bid of £50m for the Chilean, contrary to previous reports of a potential swap deal. Kaveh Solhekol clarified this issue, stating that players were not offered in exchange.
Man City £50m bid for Alexis Sanchez has been rejected by Arsenal today. £50m cash bid. City did not offer any players in exchange
— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) August 29, 2017
However, in both his article on BBC Sport and also on Twitter, David Ornstein stated that Arsenal would only be interested in selling Alexis if a player was involved moving in the other direction.
Ornstein writes that Arsenal “would like City’s Raheem Sterling as part of any deal” and that “Sterling would be interested in moving back to his home city of London”. Therefore it seems that there are legs in the potential swap deal story, but for now Manchester City have only offered cash.
Arsenal’s position makes more than a little bit of sense. Without a replacement currently in the squad, the Gunners would have to go out on deadline day and find someone to fill Alexis’ spot, with £50m that every club in Europe knows they have.
There are sure to be more developments in this story as the day goes on.