MAKE no mistake, there will be bitterness in the Manchester United dressing room over Alexis Sanchez’s huge pay packet.
It will get in people’s heads that he’s just walked in and is earning far more than them, even though they can still go out and buy two houses a week themselves if they want to.
It will cause problems because today’s game is much more about the individual, rather than the team, and that’s because social media is ripping that apart.
Everyone’s fighting each other to be the biggest and most popular footballer in the world, or at least their club.
Every player now has got a talent – they’re all dancing, singing, playing pianos, or collecting marbles, they’re all doing something to send out on social media.
Paul Pogba is already said to be looking at getting his pay increased to bring him closer to Sanchez.
And when Sanchez’s team-mates see what he’s on, every time he goes out on the pitch they will be expecting that little bit more.
But any feelings of resentment or jealousy could actually be good for United.
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If Sanchez has anything about him he’ll feel he has to do that bit more, if he’s a team man he will feel he needs to do more to justify that.
The a***hole won’t give a crap, but the proper person, which is what I see in Sanchez, the way he plays, it will bother him.
He will feel like he’s got to give something back.
As for the rest of the United squad, they’ll just have to get on with it.
United don’t need to go out and give De Gea or Pogba a new contract, although with the ridiculous TV money flooding into the game I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
In the old days we never talked about money.
I was a defender and I knew the centre forward, midfielders and keeper were on more than me but that was OK.
People didn’t pay money to watch defenders, we were just destroyers. They wanted to see someone who scored goals.
If a player moaned about their contract you’d say, ‘Did you sign a contract? Yes. Were you happy when you signed it? Yes. Well, let’s move on’. And that was it.
Everyone’s importance is always there, but self-importance is always going to be a big killer in the game today.
The million dollar question with Sanchez though is where will he play?
The Old Trafford crowd have been crying out for a No7 who can get them off their feet since Ronaldo left.
Everyone’s hoping that Sanchez will be allowed to go and do that, but the nagging doubt I have is whether Jose will take the shackles off and go out and play.
Is he going to be allowed to go from the left to the middle and drop in areas where he deems it a good place for him to be able to attack from?
We saw what he done for Arsenal, he carried Arsenal, he was Arsenal. It was only the latter part of this season where things changed.
Sanchez somehow, with the way Mourinho is with his players, is going to have to find a way to fit in.
It’s not like you buy Sanchez and mould the team to suit the way he plays, it’s a case of he’s going to have to mould in, and that will be interesting. That is the big question.
When you play someone like him you virtually have to give him a free role.
I’m trying to think of one player who Jose has allowed to have a free role, and only perhaps Ronaldo at Real Madrid comes to mind.
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I also wonder if United really need a Lukaku with someone like Sanchez around.
He can do more than Lukaku, or he can play in and around him. He can definitely run behind or drop in and play the short game.
And when Sanchez does that he doesn’t look like he’s really having to concentrate like a 15-year-old in his GCSE exams, the way Lukaku does.
As for being a mercenary and just coming to United for the cash, I don’t believe that is the case at all.
United knew they were up against City so they had to throw in something big.
There was chance with City to join something that is growing, and growing very quickly,
and that’s something great to be involved in.
But at 29, I like to believe he saw the club and saw the opportunity, because it was never there initially as it came up late, to play for Manchester United and thought about what he wanted to achieve in his career and he made that move, regardless of how much money it was.
He’s decided to come to something that at the moment is broken. He believes that maybe he can fix it.
And if he fixes it, then he’s a hero at the biggest club in the world.
With Eric Cantona, he came to us in the November after we messed up the title and helped us win the league after a 26-year wait. And they’re still singing his name in the Stretford End.
I could have pocketed far more cash by joining someone other than United, but I knew that playing for them brings with it something money can’t buy.
At the end of the day you can’t stick pound notes and property deeds in a trophy cabinet to say how well you’ve done in football. And Sanchez knows that.
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