Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester City fell through last night, as Arsenal failed to secure a replacement before the deadline.

Now, a senior Manchester City source has spoken to the Mirror about what happened. According to the source: “It was Ivan Gazidis who made the first move this morning – calling Ferran to tell him that the second offer was acceptable.

“It came with the proviso that Arsenal had to sign a replacement. But Gazidis indicated that was close to happening. It now seems that Arsenal didn’t have an agreement with either a club or a player.

“It’s disappointing but we hope that the strong relationships we built with Alexis and his advisers will help us in the future. Arsenal have known for four months that we were interested in signing Sanchez and that the player wanted to leave the club.”

This largely fits with the stories that were told throughout deadline day by various sources, that Arsenal were willing to let Alexis go but only if a replacement could be brought in before the deadline.

This turned out not to be possible, after Arsenal reportedly agreed a fee with Monaco for Thomas Lemar, and then Lemar turned the move down because he didn’t have enough time to consider it.

As for the rest of the speech, it’s clear that City are trying to put the blame for the move breaking down on Arsenal. But the fact that Arsenal didn’t have an agreement for a replacement was a result of the fact City only put their first bid in this week, according to reports.

If City had bid “four months ago”, when Arsenal apparently first heard of their interest, the deal would’ve had plenty of time to go through. But they chose to wait, and missed out on the deal as a result.

Quite why City expect Arsenal to line up replacement deals for players they have repeatedly stated they don’t want to leave, I’m not sure but it certainly all reminds me of Barcelona’s arrogance under Pep Guardiola.