As he continues to show what Michael Emenalo should do, Barrett Rouen returns to London to raid Arsenal as the fictitious Chelsea Technical Director.
Day 5
Captain’s Log: The Plot Thickens
After spending the day in London welcoming the squad back from their summer vacations and attending the annual pre-season meetings, it’s time to return to transfer business. It was nice to catch up with our returning players. Cesar Azpilicueta remarked how he had invented a new plant-based protein shake that he felt was making him taller. Such a positive lad. Antonio Conte is happy with the new squad but we agree something is missing. What is it? We’ve added to the defense, the midfield and a striker but something is missing.
Bayern Munich showed no sign of their impending piece of business for James Rodriguez. I was there but two days ago and heard not a thing. How Bayern of them. The good news is Conte and I have been discussing a player in England who would immediately make us Champions League contenders. It should be impossible. But maybe it isn’t. He was originally expected to go to Bayern Munich but with Rodriguez in the side they probably won’t have any interest in my man, Conte’s man, our man – Alexis Sanchez.
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Alexis Sanchez wants out at Arsenal and it’s pretty easy to see why. He’s 28 with only two years left on his contract and Arsenal won’t be in the Champions League this year. Year after year they seem to regress no matter how remarkable a season he has.
He feels alone and approaching that all important 30-year-old mark at Arsenal that’s not exactly the way that you want to feel. Who knows how much longer Arsene Wenger will be around or what it is he will be able to accomplish in that time?
A side with the talents of Eden Hazard, Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski and Sanchez would be one of the best in Europe. That sort of team would make a mark in the Champions League and I admit in a competitive sense I want to make more than a mark in Chelsea’s return to Europe.
I want us to be loud and hurt some of the big guns. I hope that we draw Real Madrid or Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Juventus. I want us to tangle with the giants on their terms.
I take the dogs to the park and we watch the dew rise over the Lord Holland memorial. The morning is calming – that’s why I’ve always liked it. It’s a different kind of quiet. The dew rises off the dirt paths and my two companions and I make our way out of the park. We stop by the butcher and the liquor shop for red wine and champagne. Tonight we’ll need something to celebrate with.
The engine vibrates and the bike roars to life. Today is different so the Rolls stays home. We’re going to need to think differently. No pundits really believe Chelsea can sign Arsenal’s talismanic Chilean. So we’ll take the bobber for a ride – all 1200cc’s of it.
I hit the Westway at speed, perhaps too much. Peeling in and out of Central London traffic I head north along Finchley Road till I get to the M1 and then see what the bike can really do. A child in the backseat of his parents’ car waves and I salute back. He’ll have a bike some day.
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Finally I reach the Arsenal Training Center. The wonderful training ground paid for with the sale of Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid in 1999, they’ll be able to get a couple new training grounds at the end of the day.
I meet Arsene Wenger inside the training center and he eyes me and the bike with the same professor-like disapproval I imagine he greets the sound of children’s laughter and newborn puppies. He specializes as much in discontented faces as failure it would appear. I can tell by the way he shakes my hand that he didn’t want to take the meeting much less listen to what I have to say.
We enter a conference room and sit down.
“I will not sell Alexis Sanchez” he says to me.
“Could I perhaps have a tea?” I respond. He is again un-amused.
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I don’t think Arsenal want to sell Alexis Sanchez. Why would you? He’s the best player on their team. But I know Arsenal. Many of my friends at school were Arsenal supporters. It was unpopular to be a Chelsea supporter in those days.
I know they’re bluster is more a negotiating tactic than a personality trait. They won’t want to lose him for free. No-one thought Robin Van Persie, captain at the time, would end up at Manchester United.
Sanchez joined Arsenal for £31.7 million and in a couple of years time they’ll lose all of that. Every year since he joined there have been rumors about him wanting to leave. Him wanting a new contract. Him wanting more support. Him not liking Arsenal’s style. That discontent matters and is where I think a wedge can be stuck in.
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My opening bid is £35 million to which Wenger doesn’t even respond. He shouldn’t. It’s not a great offer. I’m willing to go up to £55-60m to get Sanchez today. That’s more than Manchester City will offer and Arsenal dislike City anyway.
They owe us for Petr Cech and the fact that despite what people think we’ve always been reasonable with them in business. A player who wants to leave and is refusing a renewal? They know they have no business asking too much for Sanchez.
The offer is simple. Today the offer is £55.7 million pounds. I will be back the following day, the following month and the following year. But the offer will go down every single time until someday Sanchez leaves for free and we sign him then.
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Get something for him today, Arsene, if not for yourself then for the supporters. This move, on this day, is the smartest one Wenger can make. He knows that – he is a professor after all.