In January 2018, Manchester United completed a swap deal with Arsenal whereby Henerick Mkhtariayian moved to London and Alexis Sanchez went the other way. Both have had poor first seasons at their new clubs — the only difference being Sanchez is the Premier League’s highest earner — at an estimated £391,000-a-week wage, in addition to the £75,000 bonus, he gets for each appearance made and a £1.1 million signing fee every year. For fairly obvious reasons, it’s an unsustainable model to keep an underperforming and ageing player on ridiculous wages such as those — but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that there may just be one way to save his career in Manchester. With Lingard and Martial fresh additions to the injury list, the right-midfield position isn’t currently occupied by anybody. Critics have claimed that his main weakness happens to be roaming into Pogba’s space, but this shouldn’t be a problem if they play on completely opposite sides of the pitch. So, in theory, this could work — but one thing is for sure, it’s better than not trying anything — especially during this period of injury crisis on the flank.
Published in Daily Times, February 17th 2019.