Staying Power

ALEXIS SANCHEZ is ‘livid’  his £60million move to Manchester City was KO’d  by Thomas Lemar’s refusal to join Arsenal.

City had a deal in principle for Gunners ace Sanchez, 28, after Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis’ mid-morning call to Etihad CEO Ferran Soriano. Gazidis said the North London club would accept City’s second offer of £55m plus £5m in add-ons — but that he  could not push the button on the 11th-hour switch until they had sealed their own big-money swoop. The Gunners were one of five Prem outfits to make a stand that needed to be made— but will have a hard job getting a game out of the wantaway stars. This morning Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho, Virgil van Dijk, Diego Costa and Ross Barkley are still stuck with their employers. This mutinous bunch were all desperate to get away on deadline day. Instead, this summer’s transfer window will be remembered for clubs taking control of the world’s biggest players again. They can kick up a stink, they can demand to move, they can get their agents to do all their bidding for them. But they cannot force their way out. Liverpool, Arsenal, Southampton, Chelsea and Everton have so much money in the bank, they can afford to keep them around. Yesterday, amid all the grandstanding of transfer deadline day, those five Premier League clubs made a very serious stand. English football has been deprived of seeing some of its top stars in the opening three games of the season. But there is little to be gained by keeping them against their will when they are all so desperate to quit. There can be a temporary truce, as there was in the case of Luis Suarez at Liverpool when the Kop outfit made the striker stay on at Anfield for one more season. Luka Modric, desperate to join Chelsea when he was a Tottenham player, is another. Ambition, even if means upsetting the fans, is no bad thing. Sanchez, for one, would not be kicking and screaming to get out of Arsenal if they had any chance of competing for the title. Arsenal’s ambition, limited pretty much to finishing in the top four, does not match the Chilean striker’s. Sanchez is sick of turning up to training every day with players he believes are vastly inferior to himself. It is a fair point. He has isolated himself at ­London Colney, alienated from  team-mates after being boxed into a corner over a proposed £60million move to Manchester City. Now Sanchez is expected to be back with them next week, returning to the capital to start preparing for the Premier League clash with Bournemouth. It was a huge blow, with suggestions from Chile that he was “crestfallen” and “livid”. The bitching, the moaning and the back-stabbing has only just started in North London. It will be even tougher to re-integrate Coutinho, to convince the little Brazilian playmaker that his future must be at Anfield. Liverpool, fresh from their 4-0 home thumping of Arsenal last weekend, have been doing just fine without him. He must pull on that red shirt again now after Liverpool stayed true to their word and refused to sell to Barcelona, although there are still a handful of hours until the Spanish window finally shuts for their fans to endure. The Liverpool forward will be gutted to miss out on a move to the Nou Camp. It was only last month when Neymar boldly announced that players should be allowed to move  wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. He had a point, especially after deciding to leave Barca for the riches of Paris Saint-Germain. Unless Barcelona make a bid before tonight’s Spanish deadline that is too good to turn down, Coutinho’s dream of playing in the same team as Lionel Messi will be over. It will be a long road back for him. Van Dijk is another one, swinging the lead at Southampton after failing to force through his exit to Liverpool or Chelsea. It is certainly a statement from the South Coast club, but the facts are that Saints have not been able to match the Dutch defender’s aspirations. They are not competing for the game’s major honours, which is why he wanted to pursue a move.

The complication around Van Dijk is his unwillingness to play, his public transfer request and his complains about his treatment from Southampton. It is difficult to imagine the Dutchman, who has not played for Saints since January, pulling on a red and white jersey again.

At least he is in the right country though.

Chelsea have not seen Costa since the striker disappeared back to Brazil earlier this summer after boss Antonio Conte texted him to say he was not in his plans.

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