Considering the media hoopla currently surrounding Alexis Sanchez and his future, we looked back to three years ago when he signed for Arsenal from Barcelona. What happened and was there all this fuss then?

Arsenal’s new hope

As Arsenal fans, in 2014, we were paying more attention to the fact that we were buying a highly-rated forward for £31m from Barcelona the year after spending £42.5m on Mesut Ozil.

For the second summer in a row, the club had put their hand in their pocket and signed a genuinely brilliant player.

That was three years ago. And now, with just one year left on his current contract, the Chilean’s future at Arsenal has become one of the biggest transfer sagas of the summer.

At first, it looked almost certain that the 28-year-old would sign for Bayern Munich. At the end of the 2016/17 season, it was reportedly his preferred destination since not only could they give him some financial reassurances, they could give him footballing ones as well.

However, the Bundesliga giants were allegedly priced-out of the running by Alexis’ supposed £400k-per-week wage demands.

Next in line was Manchester City. The forward was reportedly keen to reunite with former Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, who had been his coach for his first year in La Liga before Tito Vilanova and then Gerardo Martino took his place.

Arsenal, however, have always stood by the official line that Alexis won’t be sold this summer, whether he pens a new deal or not, and that the Gunners will never, ever, ever sell to a rival… again.

Paris Saint-Germain have also been heavily linked with a £35m move for the Chile international. However, now they’re reportedly close to signing Neymar and parading him through the streets of Paris, which suggests that their apparent interest in Alexis has disappeared like a fart in the wind.

All this noise over a forward that Barcelona willingly sold Arsenal just three years ago, which raises the question: why did the Catalans sell him in the first place?

To understand this, we need to look at why Barca signed him.

Next – Why did Barca sign Alexis?

From Chile to the Champions League

Alexis signed for Barca from Serie A side Udinese in 2011. Before that, he’d come through the ranks at Cobreloa were he’d scored just nine goals in 47 appearances.

Although he was an Udinese player from 2006 – 2011, he spent the first couple of years on season-long loan spells at Colo-Colo and River Plate.

Pep Guardiola was Barca manager when the Catalans signed him from Udinese in 2011 for a reported £23m (including £10m in bonuses).

At the time, Pep said, “Sanchez is very young. He can play in all three attacking positions, he shows intense defensive skills, he’s direct and from what I’ve been told, he’s a very nice kid.”

Alexis was young, just 22. Although not a ‘kid’ by footballing standards but we’ll get onto these semantics later.

The forward said that he’d signed for Barcelona to win titles, which he did in 2012/13, as well as the Super Cup in 2011, and other domestic competitions.

“I want to learn from players like (Lionel) Messi and Xavi – and I want to help the club win more titles,” he said.

Alexis had been named the world’s most promising youngster by FIFA the previous season, and had already been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo.

“I respect Cristiano Ronaldo; he’s a great player,” he said, reported the Daily Mail at the time. “But I don’t want to be compared to anyone.”

The forward also revealed that Pep had called him personally to ask him to come to Barca.

“He called me and that was very important for me – to know that he wanted me gave me confidence.”

It was clear that the Catalans were looking for a player who wasn’t quite the finished article but would be soon. One for the future. Not a player who fans were particularly excited about, but a player they could get excited by in a few year’s time.

All the cake batter was mixed, it just had to be put in the oven.

The cake, however, took a little longer to bake than Barca had perhaps anticipated.

During his first season, Alexis missed 59 days through injury. He played just 2,640 minutes over all competitions, averaging just 64 minutes per appearance, and scored 15 goals.

The second season wasn’t much better. Pep left and although Alexis only spent 21 days sidelined, and made a handful more appearances, he played 15 fewer minutes in total.

His third season was the one when people finally took notice. 21 goals and 17 assists in 54 appearances.

Alexis scored a 78th-minute goal in El Clasico; Barca’s second of the game, which ended up being crucial as Real Madrid scored in the 90th.

He earned a point for his team against Atletico Madrid on the final day of the season and only went 12 La Liga games all season without scoring or assisting.

Next – Why would Barca sell a player on the rise?

So, why sell him?

Barcelona fan website, Barca Blaugranes, described Alexis’ move to Arsenal as one of ‘most divisive decisions’ their director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta, had made since being handed the role in 2010. The website also described the Chilean as one of their best players from the 2013/14 season.

However, they quickly moved on to talk of the future. By the time the Alexis deal was announced, it was common knowledge that Barca were going to complete the signing of Luis Suarez from Liverpool, who fans of the Catalan team saw as a ‘game changer’.

Could this, despite Alexis’ solid 2013/14 season, be why the La Liga giants were so keen to sell the forward, who was still three years off his peak, go?

Barcelona’s financial problems for much of the past decade haven’t exactly been a secret.

They couldn’t expect to spend £75m on one player without having to give someone up. At the time, while a prospect, Alexis was probably the most feasible, quality player they could sell for a decent chunk of money.

Alexis’ move also, as Barca Blaugranes pointed out, made way for some home-grown players and, while selling the Chilean over Pedro was met with criticism, they said that, “Pedro embodies the spirit of the club: selfless, hard-working, yet ruthless – a world-class player who will be content to stay at Barça, even without a guaranteed berth in the line-up.”

This suggests that Pedro has the type of attitude where he would work hard, regardless of whether he was in the starting line-up.

But does this mean that Alexis wasn’t willing to hang around in the same circumstances?

The forward practically said as much upon his arrival at Arsenal.

“I never regret my decisions,” he said at the beginning 2016. “It wasn’t easy to leave ­Barcelona. I fulfilled a dream when I moved there – to play in Spain and for the champions – but very few players stay in the same club all their life. To leave is normal.

“I wanted a new project, a new experience. And with so many attacking players at Barca it was a good choice to go.

“The directors told me clubs were interested. So I think it was a good choice to go to Arsenal, the best choice. It has been a positive move and I love it at Arsenal.”

It sounds as if Alexis couldn’t see himself ever becoming one of the big hitters at Nou Camp and decided to leave. The directors, knowing they needed the money, obliged.

It was either him or joint-highest goal-scorer Pedro, whom they sold the following year to Chelsea.

Alves suggested that Alexis was sold because he didn’t fit in with Barcelona’s style.

“(Alexis) didn’t fail…but it’s hard to play here because you have to understand the playing idea,” Dani Alves said in 2016.

“In the end, you are going to have the protagonism anyway but you have to understand that, at Barcelona, it’s not enough just to be a great player.

“You need to have a great understanding of the way Barcelona play and, if you do, then you will have a long career here.

“Those that come and go, that doesn’t mean they are bad players. They go somewhere else and they enjoy it because they are beasts, but at Barcelona it’s not enough just to be a beast of a player.”

However, were there more issues to Alexis’ problems with fitting in than just his style of play?

Next – Is Alexis just passionate or does he have a bad attitude?

Alexis: A difficult man to manage

Alexis’ attitude has been brought up time and time again over the last six months.

According to a report in the Mirror in March, John Cross claimed that the 28-year-old isn’t very popular amongst his Arsenal teammates.

Apparently, the theatrics we saw last season, where he would throw his arms in the air and sulk if he got subbed off were just the tip of the iceberg. After a poor match, he would allegedly have a go at people in the dressing room.

Alexis sounds like a toned-down version of Robin van Persie. Skilled but adept at using loud noises and big gestures to cover up poor personal performances, while taking it out on everyone else and throwing his toys out of the pram.

Martin Keown said something similar regarding the former Barca man’s attitude recently:

“I think he’s a difficult man to manage.

“I did turn up at the training ground once – and it was one of his days off but he suddenly turned up and he was bouncing around the training pitch.

“They were having to facilitate him and put a training session on for him.

“That can be a good thing but he’s a very demanding individual.”

It works.

At times, Arsene Wenger has appeared almost too scared to bench him, even when he looks to be carrying an injury and, from what Keown’s claiming, the boss is always accommodating him. This shows Alexis that he’s able to get his own way if he waves his arms around enough, which, according to the media, is what he’s doing with Arsenal now over a move away.

On the other hand, a report from the Independent, who spoke to the coach who picked Alexis out for the Chile national team at the age of 15 and then went on to manage him at Cobreloa, Jorge Aravena, referred to the forward as ‘very introverted’.

Something else interesting that his former coach said was, “It was always his great ambition to progress, to look for better horizons, for places to better himself and maximise his capabilities.”

This ties in with what the Chilean said regarding his move to Arsenal from Barca.

It seems that Alexis doesn’t like to sit still.

He doesn’t like to feel as if he’s stagnating and constantly wants to be improving. Not as part of a team but individually, which is also shown when he decides to hang onto the ball for about 100 years before laying it off, and that’s only if he has to.

Even if that means leaving his ‘dream’ club, Barcelona, he wants to improve personally. He didn’t feel like he could do that in La Liga and, to be fair, he’s gone from strength to strength since signing for the Gunners three years ago.

Now, potentially once again, he doesn’t see himself developing any further and wants to take the ‘next step’, which, as he’s previously said, is winning the Champions League.

Alexis left Barcelona because he wanted to develop as a player, which he didn’t see happening in La Liga given his inconsistent playing time.

Barcelona were happy to let him leave as they needed the money and he wasn’t really ‘fitting in’ with their style, potentially because of his attitude but that’s just speculation on my part.

The transfer to Arsenal benefited everyone. Alexis become one of the best forwards in Europe that everyone wants to sign, and Barca’s bank account breathed a – slight – sigh of relief ahead of them signing Suarez.

The move was completed within one week.

Completely the opposite to his current situation with the Gunners, which suggests it’s all bulls**t, which I doubt, or that he’s gotten too big for his boots with someone in his ear.