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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Sanchez and Ozil ‘want same salary as Pogba’, Man Utd ‘get Fonte boost’

The reassuring thing for Arsenal fans this season is that Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have at least been playing like men who want new contracts, even if those contracts are comprised of astronomical salary expectations that the Gunners will probably never pay.

The Standard has reported that both Emirates superstars are demanding pay parity with Paul Pogba, who doesn’t even play for Arsenal.

The Frenchman earns £290,000 a week at Manchester United, more than double what Sanchez (130k) and Ozil (£140k) currently get, and he doesn’t even have to pay London prices for stuff.

Ozil and Sanchez therefore feel they are undervalued by Arsenal’s measly offer of £200,000 a week, which has lead to an “impasse”.

And an impasse is a perfect moment for an opportunist to pounce. The Metro says Sanchez received a phone call from Pep Guardiola following his hat-trick against West Ham at the weekend, and it wasn’t just to get his views on the retractable seating at the London Stadium.

The paper says it was a “secret” call designed to “lure” Sanchez to the Etihad Stadium, where they’d happily pay him what Pogba earns and probably chuck in a speedboat too.

Arsene Wenger considers himself above such vulgarity and, perhaps naively, he believes Sanchez does too.

The Guardian says the Arsenal boss is confident Sanchez will not stay at the Emirates “just because of money” and that the Chilean is more interested in the “values and ambition” of the club. Presumably these are the values of not winning any world-class silverware for more than a decade. Bet Sanchez loves those.

Meanwhile, the Gunners are not likely to be purchasing alleged striker target Andrea Belotti anytime soon, unless they fancy paying the £84m release clause inserted into the new contract he just signed at Torino (Talksport).

Southampton defender Jose Fonte appears to have edged closer to a January exit from St Mary’s after his contract talks with the club broke down, says the Mirror. Manchester United and Everton want the Euro 2016 winner, who Saints would be prepared to let go for £5m (Mais Futebol).

United fans might wish they’d just signed Mats Hummels, who has revealed he came “very close” to moving to Old Trafford but went to Bayern Munich instead because they’re better (Mail).

Elsewhere, Liverpool are favourites to sign Inter midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia on loan in January with a view to an £18.5m permanent transfer (Metro), West Brom are no longer interested in signing Reds defender Mamadou Sakho (ESPN) and Man City will let Joe Hart leave for £10m in the summer - but only if he moves abroad. If a Premier League club want him he’d cost £20m (Sun). That’s Brexit for you.

@darlingkevin