Arsenal’s signing of Alexis Sanchez was supposed to be a step toward success, but the transfers since his arrival haven’t been good enough – likely causing his disillusion.

Alexis signing in 2014 was supposed to be indicative of the club’s new-found ambition. He was the second ready-made star to arrive after Mesut Ozil. Fans felt that the club was slowly putting the pieces together and creating a squad that could challenge.

The Chilean was surely sold on the idea that Arsenal will be challenging for titles, but it hasn’t worked out that way at all. Tony Cascarino believes the forward has realised how bad the squad is compared to the other top teams in the league, hence his desire to leave.

“If you go through Arsenal’s starting line-up for the 2-1 defeat away to Bournemouth yesterday there is not a single player in any position that would get into the starting XI of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur,” he said, as reported by the Daily Star.

“That is a benchmark of how far they have fallen behind their Premier League rivals. And maybe that is part of the reason why Alexis Sanchez, the Chile forward, doesn’t want to stay – he recognises that this Arsenal squad isn’t good enough.

“They are, at best, the sixth-best team in the country. There is a real lack of hunger at Arsenal, on and off the pitch, and I can’t help but wonder whether that is filtering down from the top of the club.”

Several of Arsenal’s signings since 2014 have failed to make an impression. Petr Cech was a good signing, and Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette will hopefully prove their quality with time.

But David Ospina, Gabriel, Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy, Shkodran Mustafi, Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding, Danny Welbeck, Mohamed Elneny, and Lucas Perez have been a very mixed bag. None of these players were on the level of Ozil or Alexis when they arrived.

Despite the money spent, they haven’t transformed Arsenal into title contenders. If anything, the squad has gotten worse. It hurts to admit, but a player being told that the club would be doing everything it can to challenge would surely be disillusioned after all those signings.

Whether the club has identified the wrong players, or have simply been unable to sign better ones, something has gone wrong somewhere.