Manchester United have agreed to make Alexis Sanchez the club’s
highest ever earner in the biggest wages deal in Premier League history.
The Chile forward will earn:
- £350,000 a week basic
- £100,000 a week in image rights
- £7.5million a year signing-on fee for four years
United will pay Arsenal £20m to sign the 29-year-old and a further
£15m to his agent Fernando Felicevich. Sanchez’s £450,000-a-week package
is four times Harry Kane’s earnings at Tottenham. Even after tax,
Sanchez will take home more than £1m a month.
The signing could cost United around £170m for the
four-and-a-half-year contract, which will put the pressure squarely on
manager Jose Mourinho to deliver trophies.
United are working on completing this month’s biggest transfer
between Premier League clubs before travelling to play Burnley on
Saturday. The deadline for new registrations is midday on Friday.
It makes Sanchez, who sources claim effectively ‘checked out’ at
Arsenal almost a fortnight ago, the most expensive star in United’s
history, eclipsing the money lavished on Zlatan Ibrahimovic last season.
The Swede earned £422,000 a week in wages and goal bonuses, which
Sanchez is primed to top.
Mourinho sent a message to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward over
Christmas that United must continue to compete in the transfer market
and that has been heeded.
Some of the Sanchez money must be recouped and Arsenal were on
Wednesday night confident of thrashing out a deal for Henrikh
Mkhitaryan, which now only hinges on personal terms.
Although the two transfers are linked, they do not form a swap
deal. Mkhitaryan, 28, is open to a move to the Emirates but wants an
increase on his £140,000-a-week wages at United and hopes to secure a
long-term contract worth up to £200,000 a week.
Fellow Arsenal target Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is waiting to seal
his move from Dortmund, having made clear his desire to join Arsenal
last week.
Sanchez was spotted in Mill Hill on Wednesday as he went to get his
haircut Gentlemen’s Grooming Salon called The Stag. ArsenalFanTV star
Troopz bumped into the forward during his trip and shared a selfie of
the pair via his Snapchat account.