After a sensational change of pace that saw Manchester United nick Alexis Sanchez right from underneath the noses of their noisy neighbours Manchester City at the beginning of the year, things haven’t turned out well for the former Arsenal star now playing in a different shade of red.
Moments of brilliance have been overshadowed by generally lacklustre performances which makes a mockery of the extortionate salary Sanchez currently earns.
Ahead of Manchester United’s meeting at Old Trafford with Everton this weekend, manager Jose Mourinho has already ruled out Sanchez featuring due to injuries sustained during the international break, but the update also comes amidst reports that the forward is looking for a way out of the club as soon as January.
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Mourinho not only provided an injury update but also addressed Sanchez’s poor form.
“In this moment he’s struggling because he’s injured and we come to the Chelsea match to try to help the team but his physical condition was not good and then he had to stop and was not available for Juventus and is not available for tomorrow again, so now is to be physically in the best conditions.
“He arrived January, in the first period of the season for him.
“I don’t think is ever an easy situation for a player but this season he had a good start a good pre-season, he started well against Leicester, and then he was injured.
“Then he came back and was injured again and he is the kind of player that needs to be really really sharp.”
With his failure to nail down a starting place in this rag-tag United side, The Mirror suggests that Sanchez could be heading out of Manchester and over the Channel as he looks to make his own Brexit, with PSG the likely destination.
PSG are realistically one of the only clubs who can afford his brobdingnagian wages, and though Sanchez is under contract for the Red Devils for another three and a half years, there might be a route out of United, that might involve the 13-time Premier League champions swapping one South American for another.
Edinson Cavani did himself no favours to remain in the PSG set-up this week in the France club’s own Champions League fixture by absolutely clattering teammate Neymar early on at the Parc des Princes against Napoli.
The Brazilian was left hobbling off to the sidelines, the stalemate remained unbroken for the moment, and Cavani was left embarrassed on the turf once again.
Last season, the turbulent relationship between Cavani and Neymar was well-documented, with on-field issues regarding set-pieces boiling over in front of the watching world and, reportedly, back in the dressing room.
The 2017/18 Ligue 1 top-scorer is obviously incompatible with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, who share a real rapport both on and off the pitch for Les Parisiens, with fascinating statistics showing how rarely the two sharing the frontline rarely bring Cavani into play.
25% of Neymar’s passes end up in the path of the French wunderkind, with Mbappé delivering 31% of his passes back to the world's most expensive player.
When it comes to Cavani however only 5% of Mbappe's passes are for the Uruguayan, with Neymar's tally astonishing at a paltry 0.5%.
If it comes to a choice that both manager Thomas Tuchel and the PSG Qatari owners have to make, it becomes obviously apparent that the two most expensive players in the world are not going to be sacrificed to appease the Uruguyan.
Cavani is now 31-years-old and far from the future of the club, but with Sanchez rapidly approaching his 30th birthday, this could be a good solid bandaid to rectifying issues that are plaguing both clubs.
With United forward Romelu Lukaku struggling for form having not scored at Old Trafford since March, bringing in a player of Cavani’s calibre who has consistently performed on the grandest stage and may be more suited to the robust style under Jose Mourinho then this could certainly with a lucrative deal for all parties to watch out for.
