Yuvraj Singh
Former Manchester United player Alexis Sanchez believes he would have won the UEFA Champions League with Manchester City
Former Manchester United player Alexis Sanchez, while speaking to TVN via La Tercera (h/t Manchester Evening News) believes he would have won the UEFA Champions League had he chosen to play for our rivals, Manchester City.
In what is now regarded as one of the worst transfers in the club’s history, United have swapped Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Sanchez under Jose Mourinho.
The move did not materialise at all as how it was expected with the Chilean seen as the catalyst to bring the good times back to United.
In reality, the opposite happened and it came down to a stage where the club was just keen on taking his name off the salary books.
Now, Sanchez, who has found some form back at Marseille does not regret his time over at United but believes he would achieve more had he played for our noisy neighbours under Pep Guardiola.
“I was about to go to City. I spoke to Guardiola every day, he told me happy birthday. He was like my dad, He was my dad at Barcelona and he was like my dad at City.
We talked, we talked every day, he sent me messages. And everything was ready, there was a player who was going to go to Arsenal. Then Wenger tells me you are not leaving because the other player did not want to come and they do not have another.
Suddenly the cell phone rings. Mourinho tells me: ‘Alexis, here is the seven available for you. It wasn’t a money thing, so everyone knows. It was the same with United and City. And he said to me here is the seven, we are playing in the Champions League and we are going to give everything. I wanted to leave at that moment, but I had Guardiola’s word.
That’s when I said to myself, Chilean footballer playing for Manchester United, something that has never happened. With the seven of Cantona, Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and now a Chilean had it, it was a dream.
I don’t regret going to United, things happen for a reason. I would have liked to have gone to City, yes. We would have won the Champions League by now. In the final I would have done something.”
It is somewhat wrong on part of the players to criticise the club where they have made a fortune and not contributed even slightly to deserve the money being received.
Sanchez was one of the highest payrolls in world football and had world-class players around him yet he failed to make the most of his time at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
With Mourinho fully entrusting the Chilean to do the job, it was the player who disappointed everyone more than the other way around.
A meagre 5 goals and 9 assists in 45 appearances do not warrant any player to criticise the club as the reason behind such form.
Rather due to the arrival of Sanchez, there was a halt in the progress of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, both of whom liked to operate from the left.
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Only after the Chilean, we saw the lethal combination that the duo possessed under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and no wonder it is Rashford and Martial who are still at the club and not Sanchez.
Hence, it does not do justice to the statement made by the forward after he failed to stamp his authority on one of the biggest stages in world football and the argument of ‘what if’ reeks of a player past his prime.
