Alexis Sanchez

[cibaman]

I blame Txiki and Soriano to be honest, there's an entire summer there to secure the best forward in the league and they left it to the presumption that Arsenal are adequate.

We should have been quicker on higher bids which would have forced Alexis to hand his transfer request in earlier, thus allowing Arsenal more time to find a replacement.

Feels like the Van Persie summer where a key signing has cost us.

No doubt some of you will tell me to "man up" or that "we've got enough", the latter may be the case but we had a great chance to get a season defining player in their peak and fluffed it.

It could be that City & Arsenal's negotiators just haven't been on the same wavelength all summer.

I was once involved a negotiation which dragged on, was extremely acrimonious, came close to breaking down a couple of times, but was ultimately successful. Leaving me feeling smugly satisfied about my negotiating skills. A couple of years later I bumped into the other party's lead negotiator at a social event. We'd both left our previous companies by then, decided to bury the hatchet and discussed the deal over a few drinks, asking each other questions of the "what did you mean when you said..?" type. It turned out that we'd been at cross purposes nearly all of the time, completely failing to understand the other party's negotiating strategy. We'd each sent subtle, or not so subtle, signals which had been missed or misunderstood. We'd postured and bluffed to no effect. We'd both thought that the other side was bluffing when they were being straight forward. It was a miracle that the deal actually went through.

I get the impression that both City and Arsenal might have misunderstood each other's negotiating position throughout this transfer window.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

The deal was done in 2011 but he chose not to sign for us, and probably used the deal to get better terms in Spain,

Why go back to him for his worst years? Trevor Sinclair 2, lucky escape.

He had the chance to sign for us or Barcelona - at the stage City were at , do you realistically think Barcelona wasn't a better move for him.

 

[SWP's back]

That's true but whole different ball game in January. If a club and City were prepared to shell out £50M plus wages for him in August his value will be similar in January. Difference is that a huge slice of that £50M goes to him and his agent and not Arsenal. Even if he is desperate to leave his agent will be ponting out that over half the season has gone and a few more months will provide a very sweet pension.

And that 5 months also represents 20-25% of the remainder of his career at his very prime.

 

[The slaughtered lamb]

Half a season away.

Yes, but surely we can 'cope' until then. Same rules apply of course, only offer what we feel he is worth at that stage and walk away if it's not acceptable. No more than £20m I would have thought. A lot can happen between now and then though, could be a new kid on the block in January.

 

[SWP's back]

He has just created a fuss and downed tools only last week against Candlepool. I see no way Arse strengthening us in Jan

I see plenty of ways.

 

[Don Karleone]

I DONTUNDER STAND THE BIT WHERE IT SAYS CITYS BID IS MILES OFF ?

Makes no sense to me either. Our bid was accepted.

 

[kupest]

LOOKS LIKE THIS WAS ALMOST DONE

must be fake. Saw the other summer signings and all of them had their full names under the summer signings font. Only Alexis seems extremely weird, even Danilo had his full name.

 

[Sir peace frog]

Makes no sense to me either. Our bid was accepted.

most of the people replying haven't got a clue either ,haha thought i was being a bit think :)

 

[SWP's back]

@mosssideblue

 

[SWP's back]

Half a season away.

Hasn't stopped the rags signing Ibrahimovic.