Yahoo Sport 
Gossip: Alexis 'to slap in transfer request', Liverpool 'want Pulisic to replace Coutinho' Man Utd 'to sign Bale next summer'
Are there any Arsenal fans out there who still harbour a genuine belief that Alexis Sanchez wants to stay at the club? If he’d wanted that, he’s had plenty of opportunities to do so, such as the multitude of improved contracts the Gunners have offered him.
But two days from the start of August, the Chilean has not yet shown a single sign of commitment. He hasn’t even turned up for pre-season training yet. And maybe he never will. Because the Sunday Mirror claims he is about to take matters into his own hands and “slap in a transfer request”.
READ MORE: The worst Premier League XI of all time
READ MORE: Gossip – Chelsea’ want Barkley, Ox and Sanches’, Barca ‘target Hazard’, United’s Bale boost
Gone are the days when footballers simply handed in transfer requests like civilised people. These days it has to be slapped, even when your manager is a kind elderly gentleman who is liable to be surprised by sudden loud noises.
It’s an ugly business, but the Mirror claims Sanchez feels he has been left with no option after Arsene Wenger repeatedly refused to let him leave the Emirates “on good terms”.
Instead, he has chosen to depart on what would be unequivocally bad terms. The alleged motivation for Alexis’s transfer request is his desire to do a Samir Nasri and move to Manchester City, which was the last thing Wenger wanted.
World record Coutinho?
In this context, it may perhaps be time for the Gunners to actively encourage their star player to move to Paris Saint-Germain instead. The Sunday Express says the French club will lodge a £35 bid for Sanchez after they have completed the signing of Neymar.
However, that particular transfer appears to have been complicated by Barcelona’s threat to report PSG to UEFA for a breach of financial fair play if they end up paying the Brazilian’s £199m buyout clause, while simultaneously insisting that he will not be sold for anything less (ESPN). A clever tactic that they presumably hope will bewilder the Parisians so much that they give up.
Another player reportedly desperate to leave England is Philippe Coutinho, who the Sunday Mirror says has pleaded with Liverpool to let him join Barcelona. If the Reds cave in, they will demand “£90m-plus” for the Brazilian (a world record fee, in other words) and target Borussia Dortmund’s 18-year-old American Christian Pulisic as a replacement.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Express has “exclusively” revealed that Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will target Gareth Bale in a £90m transfer. Which sounds exciting until we learn that he’s not going to do it until next summer.
Elsewhere, Everton “want an answer” from Arsenal this week about a potential £25m deal for striker Olivier Giroud (Sunday Mirror), Nemanja Matic’s £50m move to Old Trafford from Chelsea has been held up over the London club’s demands for various add-on clause payments (Sun on Sunday) and Blues boss Antonio Conte has made a fresh plea for more transfer funds, claiming that he fears he will be sacked this season if he doesn’t get them (Sunday Telegraph). That man will literally say anything to wrangle more money out of Roman Abramovich – and for that he must surely be applauded.
