There is a rich tradition of Arsenal players moving to Manchester City even though Arsene Wenger doesn’t really want them to. Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Paul Dickov*. All broke Arsene’s heart in one way or another, but he got over it in the end because none of them were really anything special in Sky Blue. So maybe it will be the same with Alexis Sanchez?

That’s the crumbliest crumb of comfort Arsenal to cling on to as it emerges that their star player has “agreed a move” to the Etihad.

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This revelation appears in today’s Express, which attributes the claim to a Chilean reporter named Fernando Solabarrieta who apparently knows his onions when it comes to stuff about Chilean footballers.

Alexis’ move north has allegedly been “finalised”, although this presumably refers to personal terms rather than an agreement between the clubs. The Gunners would prefer the forward to join Bayern Munich so he can’t score goals against them in the Premier League next season (and, for once, against them in the Champions League either).

Or better still, they’d prefer him to sign a new contract. But one suspects that if Alexis wanted to do that, he would have done it already.

Wenger is attempting to ease the pain of a possible Sanchez departure by buying other players who aren’t as good.

The Mirror tips Arsenal to battle Lazio for Leverkusen’s Turkish international midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, who has a £32.5 release clause in his contract. Exciting.

Wenger is also one of six managers trying to land unsettled Real Madrid playmaker James Rodriguez, who is also wanted by Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and Manchester United (Mirror). Ambitious.

Goal machine

Tottenham are considering PSG’s Serge Aurier as a replacement for Kyle Walker, who remains a target for Man City despite Daniel Levy increasing the right-back’s price tag from £40m to £60m (Mirror). That kind of thing doesn’t tend to put off Sheikh Mansour.

West Ham want to sign Chelsea’s 21-year-old midfielder Bertrand Traore on loan, although they would be prepared to sign him outright for £17m if the Blues prefer that (Sun). However, the Hammers face competition for the Burkina Faso international from Everton, Borussia Monchengladbach, Lille, Lyon and Schalke (Express).

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Elsewhere, Premier League newcomers Huddersfield Town are favourites to land Leeds United goal machine Chris Wood in a £15m deal (Sun), fellow Premier League newcomers Newcastle are making ” very strong steps” to sign 26-year-old French defender Florian Lejeune from Spanish club Eibar for £8.7m (Chronicle) and Man Utd will finally complete the £35m signing of Benfica defender Victor Lindelof “on Wednesday” (Sun). Although they’ve been telling us that every week for the past six months.

*Hot Football Transfer Gossip is aware that Paul Dickov left Highbury two months before Arsene Wenger’s arrival in north London, but this doesn’t mean Wenger’s heart wasn’t broken by narrowly missing the opportunity to work with Paul Dickov.

@darlingkevin