The Udinese winger now doing duty for Chile at the Copa America has signed for £40m to be paid in installments with a down payment of £25m.
His transfer fee has been seized by Arsenal as evidence that Barca can pay more for Cesc Fabregas. The English side are now demanding a minimum of £35m for the services of their captain. This puts another wrench in the proceedings.
Pep Guardiola seems to be entertaining serious doubts as to whether this will end favourably and is reportedly chagrined by Sandro Rosell’s inertia to close the deal. He has pointed out that the delay makes it more difficult to prepare his squad for the forthcoming season and is contemplating turning to Thiago Alcantara, whose outstanding U21 Euro performance shows he’s primed for the senior squad.
Stay tuned to this story that will go to the wire. The longer this goes on the better the prospects of Fabregas remaining at Arsenal. If this happens then he will stay till 2015 when his contract runs out. Hopefully by that time he will have become a legend.
As for Sanchez, he just makes a club that already has everything in place a lot better.