Arsene Wenger admits that he doesn’t really understand why Alexis Sanchez – or anyone – would want to leave Arsenal.

With Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester United pushing closer by the hour, Wenger has admitted that he doesn’t really understand why the Chilean wants to leave Arsenal in the first place.

“I understand nothing,” Wenger said. “You ask me how can I understand that you want to leave Arsenal.

“One thing when you make transfers for 30 years you know a lot about human beings. He’s professional. It’s his last contract, maybe, at the top level and it was an important contract.

“After that, I accept that. We accept to let him go. We analysed the pros and the cons. We did what we had to do. We went as far as we could go.

“Even Man City moved out of it in the end. That tells you we had no chance to give him a contract.”

Obviously, Wenger is pretty biased. The 68-year-old has been in north London since 1996 and we still can’t get rid of him.

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 (Picture source: Glyn Kirk / AFP / Getty Images)

As he says, it’s likely that Alexis’ decision has a lot to do with his age. The forward is 29 and this will most likely be his last big contract before he has to take a step back from football at the top level.

The Chilean’s move to United, which is set to be announced any day now, will see him earn a reported £350k-per-week after tax. This will set him up for retirement nicely.

There are also numerous question marks hanging over Arsenal. How long will Wenger be there? Who will we sign to strengthen? Will we even be in Europe next term?

For a player like Alexis, who has limited time left on the pitch, he probably wants more certainty that he’s playing for the ‘right’ team.

For Wenger, Arsenal will always be the right team.

As Gooners, we’ll always see Arsenal as the best and never understand why anyone would want to play for another club.

But Alexis never formed that bond, which is why it’s been so easy for him to leave.