---
title: "Sanchez to United was ‘once in a generation opportunity’"
canonical: "https://readmanutd.com/2018/02/01/sanchez-united-generation-opportunity/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
section: "Features"
published: "2018-02-01T21:31:13Z"
modified: "2018-02-01T21:31:13Z"
---

# Sanchez to United was ‘once in a generation opportunity’

Former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow has described Manchester United’s signing of Alexis Sanchez as a “once in a generation opportunity”.

The 29-year old Chilean joined the Red Devils from Arsenal in the January transfer window in a straight swap deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan go the other way. Sanchez is just the latest in a long line of high profile signings for United, that have included Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku in recent years.

Sanchez looked likely to end up with rivals Manchester City, but the league leaders baulked at both Arsenal’s fee and Sanchez’ wage demands.

When asked whether anyone in the game saw anything other than a Sanchez move to City before the window opened, Purslow told [Sky Sports News](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/11232540/alexis-sanchez-transfer-was-a-once-in-a-generation-opportunity-for-man-utd-says-christian-purslow) that it was seen by the majority of people as a done deal. He said;

> We will never quite know the sequence of events that led to that potential transaction winding away into a United purchase.

> It has the look from the outside, I don’t know this to be true, that Arsenal out of nowhere had their dreams come true.

> Rather than being in a unilateral discussion with City taking their best player nearly on a free they had a little auction going when Mourinho and Antonio Conte both spoke up in early January that actually getting Sanchez was a once in a generation opportunity to buy a top player for not much money down.

Purslow went on to descrive the shift in direction over Sanchez’ negotiations as a ‘breach in trust’ and conceded the move was a ‘brilliant outcome’ for the Old Trafford hierarchy. He continued;

> I think Arsenal suddenly had a little auction going. I suspect when Sanchez’s agent said to Manchester City’s executive team you might have to improve my deal up a bit because United are here – that \[would have\] felt like a breach in trust.

> They thought they had a handshake deal at best. I bet they were very angry about that and I suspect they thought actually let’s walk away from this deal leaving Manchester United to sweep him up.

> Brilliant outcome for United, pretty good outcome for Arsenal on balance but I suspect not a very happy camp at City around the way that deal was conducted.