Former players Pull No Punches About Arsenal

This weekend's schedule of international fixtures meant the Premier League took a brief break from a fast start to the new season. Unfortunately for Arsenal the focus is still firmly on the Gunners after their routing at Anfield and failure to do business in the closing hours of the summer transfer window.

Former players have come out to blast player performance, the manager and in particular the board for its reluctance to let go of star man Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean made it no secret that he wanted to leave the club for a long time now and with the move his preferred move to Manchester City failing to materialize because Arsenal could not secure the signature of Monaco man Thomas Lemar.

Essentially the whole situation has been reportedly a sour note for Sanchez as the Chilean all but stated he wished to never play for Arsenal again. The whole transfer saga has led to former Arsenal forward Ian Wright to describe the decision as “ridiculous”.

Writing in a column for British tabloid the Sun Wright made a few scathing remarks about his former club. “Letting the deadline pass without selling Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez was just ridiculous. It did not make any sense in football or financial terms.

“Whether it is chief executive Ivan Gazidis or someone else who is in charge of the comings and goings, they need to be held to account for this total shambles.”

And you’d have to agree with Wright on the matter as keeping Sanchez is neither good for the player nor the club. Keeping Sanchez will prove to be a decision the Arsenal board will come to regret as it only fuels the obvious frustration and resentment of the Chilean has towards the club, and will further go on to create a toxic environment in the locker room.

Granted Arsenal might have been waiting out on a better offer for Sanchez, as they were well within their rights, but should have realised the urgency at which this decision had to be made.

And its not as if they didn’t have any other options; Arsenal could have just agreed to a cash plus player swap sending Sanchez off to Manchester and getting Sergio Aguero.

Aguero does seem to be in Pep Guardiola’s plans with him playing mostly off the bench and he’d surely have relished a chance to be Premier League starter and would add to Arsenal’s attack.

But hey, this is Arsenal where logic and common has been seemingly flying out the window with regularity and we thought Barcelona had it bad.