Creative Soccer Culture

Football Talk - Manchester City lead race for Sanchez

Football Talk - Manchester City lead race for Sanchez


Manchester City appear to be the frontrunners to sign Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez.

Sanchez is being pursued by a number of Europe's top clubs and Udinese's owner, Gianpaolo Pozzo has admitted that it will be difficult to resist an offer from a club with City's buying power.

The Chile international, who is under contract with Udinese until June 2014, scored 12 goals last season to help Udinese qualify for the Champions League.

"The right offer has not yet arrived," Pozzo said. "Alexis is a player everybody wants, but he is also a player with a specific price. It is not easy for anyone to buy him.

"And if he and his agent [Fernando Felicevich] are intelligent people, they will know that firstly we cannot give him away, and secondly if people are not prepared to give him the right consideration, it is better to stay in Udinese than to risk getting burned out or seeing his reputation suffer.



"Internazionale, Juventus, Barcelona and City are all interested but concrete offers, for his real value, have not arrived. I think it is 50-50 that he will stay here, but if he does go I would say that the likelihood is to City, because English football is the richest and knows how to evaluate its talent.

"Inter? There has only been a request to talk, but we have not spoken in any definitive form. These things are not done until the last minute, though. I say to (Inter president Massimo) Moratti to sit down and negotiate even though the Nerazzurri don't have technical counterparts that interest us."

It is thought City have already submitted a bid of £27 million, but Udinese are holding out for a figure closer to £35 million.

Do you think clubs increase the valuation of their players when they know Manchester City are interested? Have your say and join the conversations with the SoccerBible community online, on Twitter and on Facebook.

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