{"id":394109,"date":"2018-01-22T18:14:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T18:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=394109"},"modified":"2018-01-22T18:14:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T18:14:18","slug":"alexis-sanchez-signs-man-utd-swap-deal-mkhitaryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=394109","title":{"rendered":"Alexis Sanchez signs for Man Utd in swap deal with Mkhitaryan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United have signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal, in a swap deal with midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan.<\/p>\n

Chile forward Sanchez, 29, who almost joined Manchester City last summer, has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal.<\/p>\n

City decided earlier this month that they would not pursue their interest in him as they felt making him their best-paid player may affect team morale.<\/p>\n

Mkhitaryan, 29, moves in the opposite direction to Sanchez after scoring 13 goals in 63 appearances for United.<\/p>\n

The Armenia international moved to Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund for \u00a326.3m in July 2016.<\/p>\n

He has made only 10 Premier League starts this season and it is understood there was a breakdown in trust with Mourinho, who has made Sanchez his first signing of the January transfer window.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Alexis<\/div>\n<\/div>
Alexis Sanchez has had less of an impact at Arsenal this season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did it come to this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sanchez, who is set to receive a reported salary of \u00a3500,000 a week at United and will wear the number seven jersey, was announced by the club Twitter account with him playing ‘Glory, Glory Man Utd’ on a piano.<\/p>\n

He has scored 80 goals for the Gunners since joining from Barcelona for \u00a330m in July 2014, and was last season’s top scorer with 30 goals in all competitions.<\/p>\n

The Chilean almost teamed up with former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola in a \u00a360m move last summer but that\u00a0deadline-day deal collapsed\u00a0when Arsenal failed to sign Monaco midfielder Thomas Lemar.<\/p>\n

Since that move did not materialise, Sanchez has had less of an impact, scoring 0.37 goals per game compared to 0.63 last season, with several pundits commenting on his on-field demeanour.<\/p>\n

Former Gunners striker Ian Wright said in December that Sanchez looked as though he had\u00a0“clocked off”.<\/p>\n

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger denied there was a rift between Sanchez and his team-mates, but admitted the uncertainty over his future has affected team morale.<\/p>\n

And, with his contract at Arsenal due to expire at the end of the season – when he would be available on a free transfer, United have moved in.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Henrikh<\/div>\n<\/div>
Henrikh Mkhitaryan made an inauspicious start at United, being substituted at half-time of his full debut against Manchester City in September 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mkhitaryan ends underwhelming United spell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mkhitaryan, who has scored once and contributed five assists in 15 Premier League appearances this season, joined United when\u00a0Mourinho pipped Wenger\u00a0to sign him.<\/p>\n

His last appearance was in the FA Cup third-round win over Derby on 5 January, and he was left out of subsequent Premier League matches against Stoke and Burnley.<\/p>\n

In November, Mourinho said Mkhitaryan’s performances had been “decreasing step by step”.<\/p>\n

Mkhitaryan made a modest start to his United career and did not start a Premier League game in almost three months after he was substituted at half-time during his full debut against Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Yet his form improved during the second half of last season and he scored as United beat Ajax in the Europa League final in Stockholm in May.<\/p>\n

Before he moved to Old Trafford, the Armenia captain was the 2015-16 Bundesliga player of the season, and scored 23 goals in all competitions<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester United have signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal, in a swap deal with midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Chile forward Sanchez, 29, who almost joined Manchester City last summer, has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal. City decided earlier this month that they would not pursue their interest in him as they felt making him their best-paid player may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":394110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10723,145,104],"class_list":["post-394109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alexis-sanchez","tag-arsenal","tag-manchester-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/394110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}