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Sky Sports News reports that Chelsea have entered the race for Alexis Sanchez, but Manchester City have pulled out of any deal.
The Arsenal forward, who almost signed for City last summer, was widely expected to join them during this window, after City allegedly made a £20 million “take it or leave it” offer for the player who is out of contract at The Emirates at the end of the season, last week.
At that point Manchester United entered the picture, and the price for Sanchez went up, with rumours of his agent, Fernando Filecevich, set to make £5 million from any deal.
After a crisis meeting between Pep Guardiola and club bosses on Monday, City decided to withdraw from the race for Sanchez, which appeared to leave United in pole position for the Chilean international, with reports that they were prepared to pay him £350,000 a week in wages, and offer him the prized number 7 shirt at Old Trafford.
Now, however, Chelsea have emerged as surprise late bidders, with manager Antonio Conte said to be a huge fan of a player he tried to sign from Udinese when he was in charge of Juventus.
It appears that this long-running transfer saga still has more twists in store.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.