I signed for Manchester United and asked to quit after my first training session

Having scored 38 goals since the start of the 2016/17 season, enthusiasm levels skyrocketed when Manchester United lured Alexis Sanchez to Old Trafford from Arsenal in January 2018.

The Chilean, who joined Arsenal from Barcelona in 2014, joined United in a deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan move in the other direction. Given that United had secured the services of a winger who had scored for free for the best part of 18 months, there was little doubt as to who got the better end of the contract.

Sanchez joined the club for a fee of £14million and had already scored nine goals in the first half of the 2017/18 campaign, including seven in the Premier League. In truth, this was a relatively small amount to pay for such a reliable lens source.

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“I’m delighted to be joining the biggest club in the world,” Sanchez told United’s club website after completing his move to Old Trafford. “I spent three and a half wonderful years at Arsenal and I take with me very positive memories of this great club and its fans.

“The chance to play in this historic stadium and work with José Mourinho was something I couldn’t refuse. I’m very proud to be the first Chilean player to play for United and I hope I can show that to our fans from all over the world. why the club wanted to bring me here.”

Two and a half years, a loan spell and 45 appearances later, Sanchez’s United career reached the end of the road when he was allowed to join Inter Milan, with whom the aforementioned loan spell was, during a free transfer in August. 2020. His relatively short spell at Old Trafford was extremely disappointing and no one remembers his time at the club with much fondness. His biggest highlight was scoring United’s equalizer in the 2018 FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

In total, he scored a paltry five goals for the club, three of which came before his first and only full season in United colors. He made just 27 appearances during this campaign (2018/19) and struggled to secure a starting place under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Sanchez had attracted interest from Manchester City before his move to United, but the Blues backed out of a deal to sign him due to his wage demands. This left United with a clear race to secure his signature.

But despite Sanchez’s choice of words at the time of his presentation, it turned out he wasn’t too keen on the move to Old Trafford, so much so that he wanted to quit after his very first training session at Carrington. The Chilean, now 35, revealed a month after leaving the Reds how he begged his agent to try and arrange a return to Arsenal for him.

Speaking in September 2020, the striker said: “I accepted the opportunity to go to United, it was tempting and it was something good for me, I really liked this club when I was a child. Finally, I signed but I didn’t ask for information about what was happening inside the club.

“Sometimes there are things you don’t realize until you get there, and I remember the first training session I had, I realized a lot. After the session, I came home and said to my family and my agent: ‘Can I not tear up the contract to go back to Arsenal?’

“They laughed, I told them there was something wrong, it didn’t look good. But I already signed, I was already there. After the first few months, I I continued to have the same feeling, we were not there united as a team at that time.

At the time of Sanchez’s arrival at Old Trafford, United were on a run of four wins and were unbeaten in seven, meaning they should have come into a happy, optimistic and vibrant camp. Instead, judging by his comments, he walked into a fractured and broken locker room that was not united.

After arriving mid-season in 2017/18, Sanchez made 18 appearances before the end of the campaign, helping United finish second in the Premier League table and reach the FA Cup final, before being beaten by Chelsea at Wembley, losing to Eden Hazard’s penalty in the first half.

Just over a month into the 2018/19 campaign, Sanchez was left out of United’s squad for the visit of West Ham United. It was an explosive decision from Mourinho and it had a major impact on the winger.

“In a game against West Ham I wasn’t picked,” he said. “That had never happened to me as a player. It bothered me and I said it wasn’t possible.

“To go from being one of the best in the Premier League to not playing in five months. I came home and I was very sad. The next day I trained in double teams because I love what I do.”

Sanchez’s move from Arsenal to United will go down as one of the biggest failed transfers in Premier League history. Arsenal had a slightly better tally of nine goals and 13 assists. Mkhitaryan, meaning they got the best ending in the deal.

The Armenian and Sanchez now play together in Milan with Inter. United fans won’t have many fond memories of any of them.