An argument really can be made that the swap deal of Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan is one of the worst in Premier League history.
The pair switched between Arsenal and Manchester United back in January 2018 (BBC), and now both are on-loan from Arsenal and Manchester United out in Italy.
Alexis signed for Inter Milan (BBC) whilst Mkhitaryan signed for Roma (BBC) over the summer and now, despite Alexis’ recent injury, it appears he won’t be returning to Manchester United. That’s because, according to The Daily Mail, there is no re-call option in the Chilean’s contract.
United have confirmed there is no release clause in Sanchez's loan deal to Inter after he dislocated his ankle during international duty. He will stay with Inter and they will continue to pay around half his basic salary. #mufc [Mail]
— United Xtra (@utdxtra) October 15, 2019
On the whole, this has to be seen as good news. It means that Inter Milan will have to continue to pay half of the wages of the veteran winger and he will be remaining in Italy as opposed to coming back to Manchester, and a lot of the Red Devils faithful have been slamming Sanchez on Twitter, despite his injury.
Alexis is living a soft life.
— Uncle Wilson (@iam_wilsons) October 15, 2019
It’s actually wild that two clubs are paying him to NOT play.
— ? (@utdrobbo) October 15, 2019
Man’s finished, should just hang up his boots now and avoid losing his legs in the near future
— – (@Hakk0n) October 15, 2019
The man is cursed
— Enrique Lerae Cuppan (@Jameson_Papi) October 15, 2019
welcome to Sanchez world
— Paul (@Paul50188242) October 16, 2019
A lot of the fans, though, have also taken this as an opportunity to throw rare praise in the direction of Ed Woodward.
He will have been the man to ensure that Alexis wouldn’t be returning to the club early and would have Inter paying out half his wages regardless of whether he was in fine form or not on the pitch, and for that he should at least get a bit of praise.
Nice one! Ed is good when doing stuffs like this.
— Promise Israel (@Promakin23) October 15, 2019
Woodward masterclass
— kev (@trillkevooo) October 15, 2019
But it is clever from Ed not to have a release clause. So he stays there despite being injured
— Kob Ross-Aikins (@KobRossAikins) October 15, 2019
Ed Woodward What a Genius!
— Gaurav Kulkarni (@GauravK84451943) October 15, 2019
I guess we did get the good side of the deal
— Sam (@_samadeyemi) October 15, 2019