Transfer Centre

Manchester City to return for Alexis Sanchez in January?

By Daniel Lewis, Senior ReporterPublished: 31 August 2017 8:50 PM

Man City to return for Sanchez in January?

Manchester City had a second bid for Alexis Sanchez accepted by Arsenal before the Gunners' move for Thomas Lemar collapsed, according to a report.

Manchester City are reportedly determined to sign Alexis Sanchez before the end of the season and are willing to return with a fresh offer in January.

The Citizens have admitted defeat in their attempts to sign the Chile international before the summer transfer window closes at 11pm on Thursday night.

According to The Mirror, however, the long-running pursuit is not over yet as City will table a third bid when the transfer window reopens for business in four months' time.

City are said to have been confident of getting a deal over the line on deadline day, only for Arsenal to fail in their pursuit of landing replacement attacker Thomas Lemar, who instead opted to stay at AS Monaco.

The same report suggests that Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis informed counterpart Ferran Soriano earlier in the day that City's second offer, worth up to £57m with add-ons, had been accepted.

A source is quoted as saying: "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."

Sanchez played a direct part in 34 Premier League goals last season, but a minor injury problem has restricted him to just one outing so far this term.