Premier League club Arsenal appear to have reached the stage of desperation after having offered a club-record salary package to Alexis Sanchez. The Chile international has notched 29 goals and assisted a further 16 in all competitions for the Gunners this term.
According to The Mail, the north London giants will begin contractual discussions with Sanchez after the FA Cup as they seek to ward off interest from his suitors.
German champions Bayern Munich are understood to have expressed an interest in the attacker, but the salary package still remains a stumbling block owing to their restrictive wage budget.
Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus have also been touted as potential destinations for the frontman while a move to a direct league rival could still be on the cards.
Sanchez has previously iterated that he would like to remain in London with a club with a ‘winning mentality‘, and this may suggest that he could stay put at the Emirates with Arsene Wenger previously claiming that the player will not be sold in the summer.
In spite of this, the lack of Champions League football would be hard to take for a player of Sanchez’s calibre and he will be yearning to feature in the elite competition next term.
Whatever happens, Sanchez could end the season on a high note, should his side trump over Chelsea in the FA Cup final – a trophy which the Gunners have lifted in two of the last three seasons.
Apart from Sanchez, the north London club are also in the dark about the future of key duo Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who have just 13 months left on their contracts.
Ozil has shown signs of his old self since the switch to the 3-4-2-1 formation while Oxlade-Chamberlain have revived his career following Wenger’s decision to play him in a makeshift right wing-back role.
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