BREAKING NEWS: I wanted to return to Arsenal immediately after leaving—I even requested to have my contract terminated.
Alexis Sanchez once revealed that he wanted Manchester United to terminate his contract after just one day at the club. The forward, who joined United in 2018, had previously made his mark in the Premier League with Arsenal, scoring 80 goals in 166 appearances over four years before being lured to Old Trafford.
Initially, Sanchez was set to join Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City midway through the 2017/18 season. However, when that deal fell through, he chose to join Manchester United instead. Despite high hopes of continuing his successful run under Jose Mourinho, Sanchez’s United career got off to a rough start.
Speaking about his decision on Instagram, Sanchez explained: “Before, I had an agreement with Man City, but due to football issues, 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 that you don’t realise until you get there, and I remember the first training session I had, I realised a lot of things.”
Upon witnessing how things were run at United’s Carrington training ground, Sanchez was disillusioned and even expressed a desire to return to Arsenal. He recalled telling his family and agent: “After the session, I got home and I told my family and my agent: ‘Can you not rip up the contract to go back to Arsenal?’ They laughed, but I told them something didn’t sit right; it didn’t seem good. But I had 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.”
Sanchez’s time at United was, by all accounts, disastrous. He managed just five goals in 45 appearances before his contract was mutually terminated two years early, allowing him to join Inter Milan on a free transfer. In Italy, Sanchez enjoyed a more productive spell, scoring 20 goals in 109 matches before moving to Marseille in 2022.
Sanchez returned to Inter in 2023, scoring only four goals in 33 appearances before joining Udinese in the summer. Currently dealing with calf issues, Sanchez has yet to feature for his new club and is expected to return to action by mid-October.
While Sanchez’s United stint was a costly mistake, Arsenal has also had its share of regrettable signings. The most notable is the club-record £72 million purchase of Nicolas Pepe from Lille in 2019. Despite thriving in Ligue 1 with 35 goals in 74 games, Pepe struggled in the Premier League, scoring just 16 goals in 80 appearances. He spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Nice before leaving Arsenal for Trabzonspor on a free transfer despite having a year left on his contract.
Under Edu and Mikel Arteta, Arsenal has since shifted its focus towards smarter transfers, prioritizing youth development and bringing in younger, proven talents like Declan Rice and Kai Havertz. Even when signing older players, Arsenal has been more frugal—Leandro Trossard arrived from Brighton for £27 million at age 28, and Jorginho cost just £12 million.
Conversely, Manchester United has continued to make questionable signings in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. One of the most notable was Paul Pogba, who rejoined the club for a world-record £89 million in 2016, only to return to Juventus on a free transfer six years later. More recently, Jadon Sancho was signed from Borussia Dortmund for £73 million in 2021 but struggled to make an impact at United, scoring just 12 goals in 83 games. Sancho is currently on a season-long loan at Chelsea, hoping to revive his career in the Premier League.