How Alexis Sanchez can transform Manchester United's fortunes if he signs

It won’t be enough to win the title, but it should be enough to take them significantly closer. Should Alexis Sanchez sign for Manchester United, he offers more than just reinforcements. He solves at least two problems, clearly evident.

He could improve the team enough that even giving him £400,000 a week will ultimately seem like a bargain. His attitude, if he cheers up, could help the rest of the players around him.

Sanchez has been traduced as a mercenary for being prepared to leave Arsenal to join United rather than City. United have offered him reportedly £100,000 more a week, and a higher signing fee in order to secure him. For that, Sanchez will elect not to join Pep Guardiola at City, something that has been received as akin to taking a dump on the Mona Lisa.

Given Mourinho has won two Champions League, first with Porto and then Inter Milan, and knocked Barcelona off their perch, all while creating Chelsea’s great team, it is not as if he is instead teaming up with some know-nothing chump.

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Guardiola, after all, has only done something special at Barcelona with Lionel Messi. So far, he has overseen two excellent other teams, but without any great success. Given Mourinho’s approach to football, it is no stretch to suggest that Sanchez’s straightforward attitude on the pitch is more in tune with Guardiola’s own spiritual weirdness, as entertaining as it is.

Of course, it’s fair to think Guardiola is the better manager, and perhaps even the best manager in the world, but it is daft to pretend that going to United is a bizarre choice. And, as we are told in the newspapers more and more, the main thing Sanchez wants from a transfer is to get away from the losers at Arsenal.

He may find that United, right now, reminds him of Arsenal a little too much. Player like Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marouane Fellaini and others have their own failures of mentality, either feckless or prone to lack of focus. Mkhitaryan, if he goes the other way, will at least feel comfortable in the new surroundings of Arsenal. What Sanchez might offer is a refusal to tolerate low standards.

That might have upset Arsenal players with his moodiness, but that is the fault of those players and Wenger. Give him a manager similarly intolerant of inconsistency, and he may well cheer up. He might even serve as an example to Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford, who have been wasteful in front of goal of late.

Replacing any of those mentioned, he will offer more clinical finishing. None of them come close to creating goals from nothing or seizing on half-chances compared to Sanchez. Adding him to the team should give them more goals.

Given Rashford has looked to be entering a little bit of a slump, to be expected since his introduction at a young age, and Lukaku is struggling to find the net, he gives Mourinho a chance to rest them. He also allows Zlatan Ibrahimovic to be introduced only when, or if, his body has fully recovered from his serious knee injury.

Sanchez gives something not seen at United since Robin van Persie joined. He is tired of being a runner up, and will not let himself down in the pursuit of success. He is ruthless in front of goal and has enough talent to win games by himself. United have been ponderous in attempting to the make the breakthrough against some teams, and he should counter much of that with his own insistent play.

Of course, there are risks. Like Van Persie was, he is approaching 30 and may only offer a couple of seasons at the top. There is always the risk of an alarming decline of players who play so much, especially with international commitments.

He has already played 668 games in his career, and the body can only take so much. He may alight at United, see that City are the vastly better side, and quickly lose his patience again as he watches Herrera dive in search of a penalty, or see Matteo Darmian jog back to mark his man at half-pace.

Even if United buy another central defender in the summer, and another full back, there is still no guarantee that they will not be outspent by City again, or that what they do will be enough to catch up with Guardiola’s current side as they are now.

Guardiola has improved his players by a greater margin than Mourinho has. Another malcontent in their ranks could be enough to bring down Mourinho; especially one that Ed Woodward will spend – at least – tens of millions on.

The move, despite the above, would make sense. United get another player who raises the quality of a patchy squad, however expensively assembled. Sanchez gets out of Arsenal and can play under one of the best managers in the world. It might not have been what either party anticipated, but it represents a gamble worth taking.