Alexis Sanchez Bid of £45M Reportedly to Be Made by Monaco Amid Man City Talk

AS Monaco are reportedly preparing to make a £45 million bid for Arsenal talisman Alexis Sanchez, who has less than a year remaining on his Gunners contract and has been heavily linked with Manchester City.  

According to Martin Lipton in The Sun, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is insistent Sanchez, 28, will remain at the Emirates Stadium for the 2017-18 season but Monaco are hoping to use the Gunners' interest in Thomas Lemar to tempt them into selling the Chilean.

Lemar, 21, has been heavily linked with Arsenal this summer, and the north London club have seen several bids for him rejected, the latest worth around £45 million, per Jeremy Wilson in the Daily Telegraph.

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Meanwhile, Sanchez has been widely linked with some of the top clubs in Europe, including Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, as well as Pep Guardiola's City by Jamie Jackson in the Guardian.

The danger of keeping Sanchez for the 2017-18 campaign is that he could leave for free next summer—assuming he continues to refuse to sign a new deal at the Emirates Stadium.

According to Lipton, Ligue 1 champions Monaco are prepared to offer the Chile international a tax-free wage of around £300,000 per week to move to the Stade Louis II.

If they are also prepared to include Lemar in some kind of swap deal, it could work out for all parties involved.

Sanchez would move to a club with title-winning pedigree and who, unlike Arsenal, will be in the UEFA Champions League next season.

Arsenal would avoid having their star player poached by a Premier League rival and would be well-compensated for a player in the last year of his contract, perhaps also snapping up one of their key targets at the same time.