Manchester United favourites to sign Arsenal forward Alexis SanchezBy Simon Stone
BBC Sport
Manchester United are in pole position to sign Alexis Sanchez after indicating they are willing to meet Arsenal's £35m asking price for the forward.Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Sunday that Sanchez's future would be resolved 'in the next 48 hours' after he left the Chilean out of his side's Premier League defeat at Bournemouth.Manchester City is Sanchez's preferred option but United's willingness to meet the financial demands of both the player and his club have made them favourites to complete a deal.
Sanchez is out of contract in the summer and almost joined City for about £60m on the final day of last summer's window, only for the transfer to collapse when Arsenal failed to sign Monaco and France midfielder Thomas Lemar.
United boss Jose Mourinho said on Friday that Sanchez is a "phenomenal player".
He added: "What we believe is there are some players in the football world, if you have the chance to sign them in January, March or July, you have to try. And that's it."
City boss Pep Guardiola is keen to sign a player he worked with at Barcelona and it is not completely out of the question City could come back with another offer and turn the situation on its head again.
However, it has already been stressed City would walk away rather than put together a financial package described as "ludicrous" for a player who would be available for nothing in the summer and a change in this stance is thought to be unlikely.
"I talk about the players in my squad now," said Guardiola after Sunday's defeat by Liverpool.
"We have the players we have. I don't know if we will finish with that. We have four competitions, a lot of games and we are going to try."
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