groovyalbert
it's a mute point
If Sanchez only wanted a transfer to City then this saga would be over long time ago. Pure logic.
As a free agent he can easily sign a pre contract with or without Arsenal’s permission. This pre contract can easily stipulates economical terms if he goes now or in the summer. If he only prefer City then it doesn’t matter when the transfer takes place or if other clubs are interested.
Secondly why would United/Mourinho comment about a player who don’t prefer our club? By mention his name, comment about his ability and making a long rant about respect and other bulls he more or less confirm our interest. And if we’re interested then we have been given encouragements from his agent.
And from experience in every negotiation of this magnitude there are pre talks between the agent and the club. Even if the agent tries to play games United would never enter a bidding war without some sorts of pre contract/letter of intention. Common practice. Why would the club want to be humiliated if they didn’t know they had a chance?
Some of the involved parties was leaking information directly or indirectly to Gianluca Di Marzio. Coincidence?
From my experience this looks like City for various reasons is starting to hesitate about getting Sanchez. Otherwise they would have been more pro active against both Arsenal and the Sanchez camp. Atm all informations is pointing away from them, that’s not a good sign if Sanchez really was a priority.
Not necessarily - he might be set on City, but his agent sure as hell will want to make sure he's getting the best deal from them as possible. If they're seen to be negotiating positively with us, then City - if they really want him - will inevitably up their contractual offer. Also, I don't think pre-contracts can be signed regard 2 EPL teams (not certain on this one). That said, our interest is clearly real in this case, and I'd rather us be snubbed for having tried hard to get him to come here than have just let City have a free run at him. One of those players, as Jose said.