London: Bayern Munich have become the latest European superpower this week to register their interest in Alexis Sanchez, one of those few players at the elite level who looks readily available this summer and capable of making an impact at any of the Champions League big-hitters.
The German club are believed to be prepared to offer euros 65 million (pounds 55 million, Dh262.3 million) for the 28-year-old who has continued to stall on signing a new contract at Arsenal.
The scale of the fee is surprising for a player with just 12 months left on his contract. But, unlike his teammate Mesut Ozil who also may leave, Sanchez is in high demand.
The Chilean is one of those rare talents for whom just about every major European club has weighed up an offer.
Bayern have long admired him and, having been eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals last month, are now focusing on next season. Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Chelsea and Juventus are all also interested in Sanchez yet Bayern are increasingly confident of making the signing they want in spite of major competition.
If they are to sign him then the German club are more likely to want the saga concluded early in the summer.
It would be fair to say that every month that passes without resolution weakens the hand of his current club. Increasingly it feels like Sanchez’s breadth of choice will be the story of Arsenal’s summer, rather than any hopes that the club might have of holding on to him.
Arsenal have lived with the uncertainty around the future of Sanchez, as well as Ozil, for so long now that it can feel incidental to whatever happens to be the issue of that particular week, such as finishing below Tottenham Hotspur. Nevertheless, when a manager is fielding questions regularly about the future of his two biggest names, the effect on the club’s morale, and its standing in the eyes of other acquisitive rivals, is cumulative.
