Former Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez has revealed on Instagram how he felt about leaving the Gunners for Manchester United in January 2018.
The Chilean spent three-and-a-half years as a Gunner and was arguably their best player every season. Sanchez played 166 times for Arsenal in all competitions, scoring 80 goals and providing 45 assists.
He ran his contract down to its final year, leaving Arsenal no choice but to let him leave six months before his deal ended. The Gunners swapped Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January 2018 but the deal didn’t work out for either side.
The former Barcelona man played only 45 times for the Red Devils in all competitions and managed to score just five goals. He was shipped off to Italy on loan at Inter Milan, a deal recently made permanent.
Sanchez opened up about his time at Old Trafford in an interview on his Instagram page. He claimed he wanted to return to Arsenal almost immediately, which is a revelation considering he did everything he possibly could to leave the club.
He was quoted by Sky Sports as saying: “I accepted the opportunity to go to United. It felt tempting and it was something good for me. I liked this club a lot when I was a kid. Eventually, I signed but I didn’t ask for information on what was happening inside the club.
“Sometimes there are things you don’t realise until you get there and I remember the first training session I had – I realised a lot of things.
“After the (first training) session, I got home and asked my family and agent ‘can you not rip up the contract to go back to Arsenal?’ They laughed (but) I told them ‘there’s something that doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t seem good’.
“But I already signed, I was already there. After the first few months I carried on having the same feeling – we weren’t united as a team in that moment.”
It has been a common theme for star players who’ve left Arsenal. Almost all have won silverware but their own form never really reached the standards they set at the Emirates.
Arsenal fans were pleased to hear Sanchez regretted his decision to leave the club. Many felt he could have been a club legend had he stayed but some have yet to forgive him.
Here’s how some fans reacted on Twitter
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