lexis Sanchez to Old Trafford from Arsenal in January 2018.
The Chilean, who had joined Arsenal from Barcelona in 2014, joined United as part of a deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan move in the other direction. Considering United had secured themselves the services of a winger who had been free-scoring for the best part of 18 months, there was little doubt about who had got the better end of the deal.
Sanchez joined the club for a £14million fee and had already scored nine goals in the first half of the 2017/18 campaign, seven of which had been plundered in the Premier League. In truth, it was a relatively small fee to pay for such a reliable source of goals.
“I am thrilled to be joining the biggest club in the world,” Sanchez told United’s club website after completing his move to Old Trafford. “I have spent three-and-a-half wonderful years at Arsenal and I bring with me very positive memories of that great club and its fans.
“The chance to play in this historic stadium and to work with Jose Mourinho was something I could not turn down. I am very proud to be the first Chilean player ever to play for United and I hope I can show our fans all around the world why the club wanted to bring me here.”
Two-and-a-half-years, one loan spell and 45 appearances later, Sanchez’s United career reached the end of the road when he was allowed to join Inter Milan, who the aforementioned loan spell was with, on a free transfer in August 2020. His relatively short stint at Old Trafford was massively underwhelming and nobody looks back on his time at the club with much fondness. His biggest highlight was scoring United’s equaliser in the 2018 FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
In total, he scored a paltry five goals for the club, three of which were netted before his first and only full season in United colours. He made just 27 appearances in that campaign (2018/19) and struggled to nail down a starting berth under both Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Sanchez had been the subject of interest from Manchester City prior to his move to United, only for the Blues to back out of a deal to sign him because of his wage demands. That left United with a clear run to secure his signature.
But despite the words chosen by Sanchez at the time of his unveiling, he was not, as it turned out, overly thrilled at making the switch to Old Trafford, so much so that he wanted to quit after his very first training session at Carrington. The Chilean, who is now 35, revealed a month after leaving the Reds how he begged his agent to try and fashion a return to Arsenal for him.
