Following the sale of Liverpool’s own talisman Philippe Coutinho for a reported £142m, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will be keen to bring in a liable replacement for the Brazilian.
The Gunners are holding out for £35m for the Chilean – who will be allowed to depart the club as a free agent once his contract expires this summer – a fee which Liverpool will have no qualms in coughing up.
Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group are anxious to end the Reds’ barren run of 28 years without a league title and have accepted that they need to spend big if they hope to achieve that feat.
They’ve displayed their ambitions by twice shattering their transfer record this season; first of all with the purchase of RB Leipzig’s Naby Keita – though he likely won’t be able to run out at Anfield until next season – for £66.4m; and most recently for the long-awaited arrival of Virgil van Dijk, who became the world’s most expensive defender at £75m.
Now the club have set their sights on 29-year-old Sanchez, though they expect it to be difficult to pry the forward away from a move to Manchester, largely due to the South American’s heavy wage demands.
It’s claimed that City are willing to pay Sanchez £285,000-a-week, while local rivals United are happy to offer the Arsenal man a whopping £300,000-a-week to come to Old Trafford.
Prior to his departure, Coutinho was Liverpool’s highest-paid player on £200,000, a considerable gulf compared to Sanchez’s wage demands – though Liverpool are resigned to the fact that that is the going rate for world-class players these days.
Considering the fact that had Sanchez been on a long-term contract at Arsenal, the transfer fee for him would likely be nearing the £70m mark, it may be too good an opportunity to miss out on despite the Chilean’s wages.
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Though Liverpool understand that it will be difficult to convince Sanchez to choose Anfield over Manchester, it is understood that the Reds are more confident of securing their man should City drop out of the race.
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