Manchester City were blocked from beating Arsenal to Alexis Sanchez by Uefa rules, reveals Manuel Pellegrini

James Benge15 December 2016

Alexis Sanchez will be lining up against his one-time Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola when Arsenal travel to Manchester City on Saturday, but he could well have been donning a sky blue jersey rather than red in the big match.

That is according to former City manager Manuel Pellegrini, who revealed that he hoped to sign his compatriot during the summer of 2014 only for Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations to make a move impossible.

A host of top English sides entered the race for Sanchez when Barcelona made the forward available after bringing in Luis Suarez, with the 27-year-old ultimately choosing Arsenal over Liverpool because he preferred a move to London.

However City may well have looked to pair Sanchez with Sergio Aguero in what would surely have been the Premier League’s most fearsome strike force were it not for Uefa’s restrictions.

“He was one of the best in the world and he showed it every day,” Pellegrini told Chilean radio station ADN. “He was a major player we wanted to take to City.

“We could not take him before he signed for Arsenal, it was because the club was punished for Financial Fair Play. I did not have the space in the squad for him.

“Alexis is a complete winner and hopefully he will remain a force for a number of years.”

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City were fined £16.3million, had their spending capped to £49m and their Champions League squad cut to 21 players. FFP sanctions did not, however, prevent the club from spending £41.9m on French centre-back Eliaquim Mangala nor a further £25m on Wilfried Bony the following January.

Sanchez did not take long to show City what they were missing, scoring a brilliant volley in a 2-2 draw between the two sides at the Emirates in 2014.

With the Chilean entering the final 18 months of the Arsenal contract he signed that summer City are among the clubs who will enter the chase should Sanchez decide to move on, though Arsene Wenger has warned both him and Mesut Ozil that neither will be sold before their deals expire.

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