Sky Sports pundit advises Mourinho to bid £50m+ for rival star

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson believes that Jose Mourinho should make a bid in excess of £50 million to secure the signing of Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez.

The Chilean international is in the final 12 months of his contract at the Emirates with no sign of putting pen to paper over a new deal.

However, Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has previously said he will not sell Sanchez to a rival and has so far rejected every offer from Manchester City, as well as a reported £80 million offer from Paris Saint-Germain.

Paul Merson believes that Alexis Sanchez “could bring [us] the title” should we secure his services before the summer transfer window shuts on 31 August.

The former-Arsenal player has been quoted by the Daily Star as saying:

“Manchester United should make a bid of more than £50m for Alexis Sanchez because he could bring them the title.

“I wouldn’t get too carried away by the way they steamrolled West Ham last Sunday because they are still a player short for me. For the first 25 minutes or so of that game they never looked like scoring.”

Merson’s opinion will have no effect over the boss’ decisions and I also believe we’d need to bid significantly more than £50 million to pinch another star from Arsenal particularly after the Robin van Persie deal last time.

Wenger seems keen to keep his star, though the Chilean was absent from Arsenal’s opening day 4-3 victory over Leicester City with a supposed injury.  It does seem a bit ludicrous that the experienced manager and good businessman is willing to let Sanchez leave on a free transfer at the end of the season instead of cashing in on him this month.  Of course, this could just be mind games from the Frenchman to try keep the value of Alexis Sanchez at a premium.

I’d certainly welcome Sanchez in our team as he can play equally well on both wings and as a striker.  Whilst we’re already well-equipped on the left with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial he could certainly make an impact on the right of both our 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations, being a completely different option to Juan Mata and a much better footballer than Jesse Lingard.

I won’t hold my breath though – it would be a massive shock if we pulled this one off considering Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Juventus are all interested, and with Wenger not wanting to sell to a Premier League rival.