Manchester United have terminated the contract with Alexis Sanchez (Getty Images)
When the move first happened, many Arsenal fans were shocked and Manchester United fans were overjoyed at the prospect of getting Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean arrived on the back of a terrible last six months at Arsenal, but many put that down to his contract battle with the Gunners and instead looked past that. His previous season had seen Alexis Sanchez finish with 30 goals and 18 assists in just 51 appearances, a career best.
That was largely down to the fact that the 30-year-old was playing as a centre forward, where he flourished due to his immense stamina and work rate. This was most of Manchester United fans’ expectations as they thought they’d get a brilliant player in Alexis Sanchez once he adapts to Mourinho’s tactics.
But a little over a year later and it’s safe to say that bringing in the Chilean was arguably the biggest flop of Jose Mourinho’s time at Manchester United.
Sanchez has failed to live up to the expectations at United, barring a match-winning effort to come back to beat Manchester City 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium last season. Now with Mourinho sacked and Manchester United reinvigorated, it seems that the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bug has hit everyone at Old Trafford but the Chilean.
His performance against Leicester City showed that Sanchez is clearly lacking in confidence. The Chilean did close to nothing against the Foxes and was eventually subbed off, with Anthony Martial making more of an impact after replacing the former Arsenal forward.
Now with a little over four months left for the season to end, it’s high time for the real Alexis Sanchez to show up and if anyone can do it, it’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Somehow, the former Manchester United striker has reinvigorated the entire team, including a struggling Paul Pogba, who’s now in the form of his life having created or scored 11 goals since Jose Mourinho’s sacking.
However, now it’s time for Solskjaer to try and revive Alexis Sanchez, simply because if he does, then he’ll reduce the burden to score and create goals off Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford’s shoulders. It will easily define the Norwegian’s career but more so, it will help Manchester United try and achieve a top-four finish by the end of the season.