Manchester City hope that their ‘strong relationship’ with Alexis will help them in the future.

Who can tell me what “tapping up” means?

I’m not naive. I know full well that clubs talk with players all the time, regardless of if they have permission or not. It’s something that’s impossible to police and seemingly something that nobody gives a damn about anymore.

Nonetheless, City’s completely transparent pursuit of Alexis Sanchez does raise a few eyebrows.

The Mirror have an interesting statement given to them by a City source. While most of it explains City’s position in the big mess on deadline day, this one line caught the eye.

“It’s disappointing but we hope that the strong relationships we built with Alexis and his advisers will help us in the future.”

Here is a naked admission that City were in contact with Alexis and his representatives despite him being contracted to Arsenal.

Arsenal likely gave City permission to talk with Alexis yesterday, given that had all the right pieces fallen into place, the move would have gone ahead with no problem.

Still, I have little doubt contact between City and Alexis occurred long before then.

All summer long, the papers reported that City were confident of signing Alexis. That confidence was grounded in the knowledge that Alexis wanted to join them. Some reports even went as far as claiming that personal terms between City and Alexis were already agreed.

The near-constant stream of reports was akin to Barcelona’s pursuit of Cesc Fabregas back in the day, or their pursuit of Hector Bellerin earlier this summer. Considering much of Barcelona’s former staff – Ferran Soriano, Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola – are at the club, it’s no surprise that they’ve adopted the same tactics.

The tone of each report implied an irritating arrogance. They had the will of the player, so it was only a matter of time before they would have the will of Arsenal, too. Arsenal were the bad guys. They were the ones holding a player against his will, preventing him from getting the move he truly desired.

Then you’ve got Claudio Bravo and Kevin De Bruyne talking about what a good buy Alexis would be and how they’d welcome him. Next thing you know, they’ll be talking City DNA.

All the while, Arsenal sat there awaiting a bid that came far too late.

The posturing from both Arsenal and Manchester City was what led to the Deadline Day debacle. City could have bid at any time, while Arsenal could have skipped all the needless drama by inviting offers earlier.

For all the talk of not selling our best player to a rival and keeping Alexis beyond this summer, we sure did change our minds quickly right at the end. That we were moments away from letting the player go completely undermines our so-called ‘tough’ stance. The club was planning to sell all along; they just didn’t want to look like they were easily letting Alexis go.

Transfers are a murky business. The secrecy,  posturing,  reports, and everything else all contribute to this circus. Sometimes, I wish the clubs could just cut through all the nonsense and get on with it.

Alexis will get his move in the end. In the meantime, we’ll have to endure months of finger pointing and speculation as to what will happen next.

City will likely feel entitled to the player, and we’ll no doubt be hearing about it every week in the press.