Will today be the day Alexis Sanchez signs for Manchester United?
Journalists in Chile certainly think so. Some news outlets claim the deal will be agreed today which means the Chilean striker would be available to face Burnley in the Premier League fixture on Saturday.
Reports also claim Henrikh Mkhitaryan could be wearing an Arsenal shirt by the weekend.
Jose Mourinho has already confirmed he could leave the club and the Armenian could be tempted by the move to north London to get more game-time.
In other news, Mourinho could sign a new deal in the coming days and David De Gea could also agree new terms as United fight to fend off Real Madrid.
But a return for Cristiano Ronaldo looks unlikely as Zinedine Zidane says he cannot imagine Real Madrid without the Portuguese star.
Stick with us as we bring you all the transfer news LIVE from Old Trafford.
Why would Sanchez want to go to United?
Sam could go on but you get the drift. United remain the biggest club in the land by a distance.
United handed transfer bonus by Sanchez
Nearly two years on from Pogba’s complex homecoming, the last thing United need is another transfer saga played out on Instagram following an international tournament.
That would have surely been the case with Paulo Dybala, Gareth Bale or Antoine Griezmann if they had to wait until the summer to launch their bid for a marquee forward.
Another bad night for Morata
He missed some easy chances and threw himself down regularly. He was rightly booked for diving before his meltdown earned him a second yellow.
Rivals jealous of United?
That may explain the breakdown of Sanchez’s contract, should he end up moving to Old Trafford. Even City, once found guilty of breaching financial fair play rules, have tried to take the monetary moral high ground. Well, they aren’t very high and mighty after they were prepared to spend in excess of £160m on Sanchez and Kylian Mbappe in the summer.
As for Chelsea, they were humiliated by United when they had fixated on Romelu Lukaku and ended up with United reject Alvaro Morata. Oh, and on Morata...
United have learnt from transfer mistakes
That Mourinho is unprepared to consider loaning out McTominay now Carrick and Fellaini have regained fitness indicates he has learnt from last year’s transfer mistakes. United’s squad became slim at a time it needed beefing up for four months of competing on four fronts and they had just two free midweeks from February onwards.
When United sign a player vs when Chelsea sign a player
Yes, the ‘Utd [insert name] crowd have been hard at work on Twitter collating historical tweets by reporters who may or may not be biased against United. It has also sparked one of those threads where the top tweeters are from users like ‘Bakayology’ and the like. Still, despite that, it’s a reasonably valid point.
When wages are factored into a United deal
This is becoming quite prevalent with deals involving players going to United. It only seems wages are factored into deals when the buying club is United and, yes, even City sometimes. It is all rather tedious.
Latest Manchester is Red podcast
A great way to start your day and plenty of Alexis Sanchez chat.
Alexis Sanchez latest
Here’s all yesterday’s ‘developments’ in one place.
Will today be Alexis Sanchez day?
Get ready for another day of Alexis Sanchez chat as United look to seal the deal.
