Alexis Sanchez’s former Chile u20 coach, Jose Sulantay, claims that Alexis Sanchez has lost his spark following all the drama surrounding his failed move to Manchester City this summer.
Sulantay claims that Alexis has lost his ‘spark’ and looks ‘fatter than normal’ this season after he became unsettled at Arsenal and his £60m move to City fell through.
“I saw him gone, I saw him out of physical shape, totally. He’s fatter than normal,” Sulantay told Chilean newspaper La Cuarta [via Independent].
“Without his spark, he never left that Paraguayan defence behind. He never made a diagonal run, it was something else. It was not Alexis.
“This can bring you problems later, the statements of wanting to leave. The team-mates must have felt nothing for him.”
City came through with an offer of £60m for the Chilean at the end of the transfer window but, by then, time constraints meant that Arsenal couldn’t sign his replacement, Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, in time and the Gunners pulled the plug.
So far this season, the 28-year-old has only made three appearances and two of those have been for Chile during their losses against Paraguay and Bolivia.
Alexis was slated by the press, leading him to attempt to defend himself on social media.
When the forward featured in his first match for Arsenal this season, it was against Liverpool in a game the Gunners lost 4-0. Alexis wasn’t at his best and was subbed off after an hour.
However, the bloke just seems unfit because… well, he is at the moment. He was involved in the final of the Confederations Cup, had a late summer break, then had to return from an abdominal injury.
I know we joke about the guy being a machine and all but come on, he needs some time.
Of course, I could be wrong and he could be wallowing in a pit of despair because he has to wait a whole season to be reunited with Pep Guardiola at City.
And if he is, do we really want that sort of player at Arsenal?