A guest post today from Will at YourDailyArsenal:

With not too much news about our star forward recently, it gave many Arsenal fans hope that the player might actually be staying in North London. However, our dreams came crashing down this week when the Guardian published a story that Manchester City are increasingly confident about signing the Chilean, with the main factor that the player is keen to play for Pep Guardiola again. The article also stated that Wenger knows that the North West is his preferred destination.

Though many of us thought towards the end of the season that Sanchez will probably be leaving this summer, the FA Cup might have raised the slightest of hopes that it was a starting point to push on – though not qualifying for the Champions League might have shaken those at the top of the club. It was starting to look that way, with reported bids already made for Alexandre Lacazette, Thomas Lemar and Kylian Mbappé, with the first two being probably the most likely to succeed. However, if Wenger does decide to let Alexis go to a domestic rival it will unravel all the changes that most of us thought the club had made.

How would we be able to consider ourselves a big club anymore? I know we’ve sold to City in the past with the likes of Nasri, Adebayor and Sagna – though that was when we were apparently a cash-strapped club and are not anymore. Though we might get a lot of money for Sanchez, it won’t be much more than £50m at most, given the player is in the last year of his contract and heading towards the end of his career. If so, what is £50m to us in the bank if we can’t attract the best players to come to the club anyway, due to the club’s current position? It looks like it will need a bid of over £50m to bring Lacazette to the club, but is he on the same level as Alexis? No, the Chilean is in a different league, literally (poor I know).

So what’s the alternative, let Alexis’s contract run down next year and then let him leave on a free? Yes! We all know what his character’s like, always running, always wanting to play and as soon as you take him off the pitch you see a different side of him. So I think if Wenger sat him down and said that he wasn’t allowed to move this summer, but could move freely next summer I doubt that he’d kick up a fuss. Though City are apparently increasingly confident of signing him, in all likelihood, it means they’ve sat down with the player or his agent and have been told he wants to move, though that doesn’t mean Wenger should accept any offer on the table. Tickets for all Arsenal matches for 2017-18 will be available at Football Ticketpad – hopefully still featuring our favourite Chilean.

Arsenal have enough money to bring in enough key players to actually make a real difference to this squad this summer. With one signing already made and reported bids for top calibre players underway it could be a very positive time, so please Arsene, don’t ruin it just yet.

Written by Your Daily Arsenal