Pep Guardiola congratulates Alexis Sanchez ahead of move to Manchester United

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 19 January 2018

Pep Guardiola says that 'his opinion of Alexis Sanchez remains the same', despite the Arsenal forward seemingly rejecting the chance to join Manchester City.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has congratulated Alexis Sanchez ahead of his proposed switch from Arsenal to Manchester United and wished the forward good luck.

The Citizens were the strong favourites to land Sanchez this month after agreeing terms last summer, only for arch-rivals United to pounce.

Guardiola is understood to have pulled out of the race to sign the 29-year-old, who has has previously worked with at Barcelona, due to the escalating costs for a player with less than six months to run on his contract.

With Sanchez now likely to make the move to Old Trafford in the coming days, Guardiola insists that there are no hard feelings.

Asked why a deal broke down, the Catalan told reporters at his weekly press conference: "I am not the guy with the mathematics, the numbers. What I know right now is Alexis is still an Arsenal player.

"I think he is going to go to United so congratulations to both of them. In the end, the players and managers decide where they want to play. Good luck.

"My opinion of Alexis remains the same. It was a pleasure to be with him at Barcelona and he is going to decide to move onto another club. I wish him all the best."

United boss Jose Mourinho revealed on Friday afternoon that talks are still ongoing with Arsenal for a swap deal that will see Henrikh Mkhitaryan head the opposite way.