Remember that £75 million deadline day bid for Thomas Lemar? – Well it was all true. Arsenal had a deal in place to bring in Thomas Lemar from AS Monaco in 2017 only for the move to fall through on deadline day, ex-Gunners chief Dick Law has revealed.
We Had shook hands
Arsenal were facing dilemma over whether to hand Sanchez a new contract or just ship him off, especially with his agent [Fernando Felicevich] playing hard-ball to hand his client a big money contract. Though, Dick Law recently revealed that they did meet common ground in December before he was swaped with Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Sanchez was Arsenal’s Eden Hazard during his time at the Emirates, scoring 80 goals in 166 outings for Arsenal during his stay at the club – winning couple of FA Cups along the way in 2015 and 2017.
His departure turned out to be a huge blow to his career, scoring only five times in the last eighteen months.
“We had a deal,” revealed Arsenal’s former transfer and contract negotiator Dick Law, in an exclusive interview with Goal.
“It was in December and we had been talking to his agent [Fernando Felicevich] throughout all of 2016, the whole year. We got to December, I flew to Santiago and we did the deal.
“The player agreed to it on a phone call from Fernando’s office. Fernando and I shook hands and discussed how difficult the negotiation had been and we had the deal done.
“The contract team drafted the new contract and sent it over to the lawyers representing Sanchez and in that space of time, while the documents were being proofed, he changed his mind for whatever reason.
“We don’t know who got to the player, or why he changed his mind. But the bottom line was, he did.”
Sanchez ended up joining Manchester United with Henrikh Mkhitaryan coming Arsenal’s way
Ever thought about Thomas Lemar in Arsenal jersey?
Sanchez still had a year left on his contract but Manchester City were roaming around for his signatures with Pep Guardiola keen to bring in Alexis, whome he closely worked with during his time with Barcelona.
Arsenal were not keem on selling the Chelian though to their direct rivals and thats what then CEO Ivan Gazidis told Ferran Soriano [Manchester City CEO] when first bid floated in early in the summer.
But the Gunners were aware about void his departure will leave and were quickly in discussions with AS Monaco and Thomas Lemar about the French winger potentially moving to the Emirates.
Though a formal offer didn’t get in until the deadline day and in the end the three clubs involved weren’t able to find common ground in till it was too late.
“There were no formal offers for Sanchez until the end of the window when the Manchester City one came in,” explained Law.
“So then you run into a pretty simple calculation. It was the end of the window, literally the last day, and we wanted to be in a competitive position for the Champions League the next season.
“Were we more likely to compete for a Champions League position with Sanchez or without him? The decision was, we would be more competitive with him.”
Law added: “We did try to get Thomas Lemar that day, but it didn’t get done.
“We thought we had Lemar and then that would have meant Sanchez to Manchester City. It was a simple operation of using the Sanchez money to pay for Lemar.
“We had a deal done for Lemar, Sanchez had a deal done with City. But Lemar had been called up for France and Monaco had played the thing out and they ended up playing it out too long.
“They didn’t send a clear signal to the player before he left for the national team and when they did send that signal, Lemar was already there with the French national team on the day of their international match and the deal fell apart.
“It was a shame because it would have been interesting to see Lemar at Arsenal, but you have to move on from these decisions and circumstances. You can’t sit and dwell on what might have been.”
