Sanchez finally gets his way with move to Manchester United.

Sanchez finally gets his way with move to Manchester United- another transfer window.

So it is that the transfer window market goes about its business in the way it has for a number of seasons. Football loves its transfer market window because this is the one month of the year when footballers from across the country can exercise their right to do anything they like without feeling as guilty as sin. Most football supporters will continue to regard them as grasping mercenaries with only the Champions League on their mind and a place among the super rich elite of English football. Was it always the way with Alexis Sanchez, now properly installed in the red of a Manchester United shirt for the thick end of £14 million?

 Not a bad day's work for the Chilean but then this is what he's been waiting for ages so no surprise there then. Finally Arsenal's incredible sulk has got his way. He's been stamping his feet for some time in an outrageous display of childish pique and impatience and football has seen another in the latest episode of player power where the said player jumps up and down like a six year old, cries for attention, throws his teddy bears out of the window and then pleads for another piece of birthday cake.

Since the beginning of the Premier League season the Sanchez body language has quite obviously fooled nobody. Here we have a modern day footballer so rich, pampered and self absorbed that the outside world around him no longer seems to matter. When Arsene Wenger somehow persuaded Sanchez to stay at Arsenal last August it seemed that an important truce had been sealed. There seemed to be a temporary compromise in the air as both Wenger and Sanchez shook hands and pretended that all was sweetness and light.

Now Alexis Sanchez is a Manchester United player and in a quickfire swap deal with Arsenal, the Gunners have brought themselves Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a spectacular goal scorer, as was witnessed by Mkhitaryan's scorpion goal for United. It's hard to know just who has reaped the full benefits of this mid season transfer between old rivals. Sanchez has got his way though and if he wants to strike up an enduring friendship with Jose Mourinho he may have to work it at for some time. Mourinho has no time for prima donnas and if Sanchez lets out so much as a whimper then he may have to think again.

Undoubtedly Sanchez is the most naturally gifted of attack minded strikers. From the shifty roll of the body to the subtle changes of pace, Sanchez carries around him a full bag of trickery, a player of handsome ingenuity, exceptional ball control in tight areas and the ability to cut in from the touchline, bursting forward into space, before swatting aside the physical challenges of defenders who can only gasp with amazement. He can also score goals from all manner of directions and continues to infuriate his critics when his mind goes on some long and mysterious journey.

But maybe Sanchez's move is for the best since, quite clearly, an otherwise preoccupied Sanchez is half the player he can be when convinced that there are quiet whispers behind his back. Frequently, we've all seen those anguished and wide eyed stares at the referees when the Chilean thinks that he's the only one who may be suffering some peculiar affliction. This is not the way it works though and maybe this whole charade could be a blessing in disguise. Sanchez is now a Manchester United player and that's all there is to it.

Long gone are the days it seems when Arsenal could completely rely on their foreign players to behave in the most responsible and rational fashion. When Dennis Bergkamp signed for Bruce Rioch over 20 years ago Arsenal proudly revealed a player who was not only immensely talented but one whose unwavering loyalty would never diminish. Ultimately, Bergkamp would become one of the greatest strikers Arsenal fans would ever see. He was tall, elegant, a footballing academic with a vast array of delectable skills to his game. Bergkamp could glide into space, trap the ball with immense grace, turn his defenders inside out and then instinctively crack home a huge conveyor belt of goals.

Bergkamp of course will always be remembered for that remarkable goal scored in the 1998 World Cup against Argentina for Holland. Dragging the ball from the air with his foot, from a superbly flighted diagonal ball, he caught the ball perfectly and then, with the ball ever so gently dropping from the air, he moved the ball smartly away from his defender before steering the ball home with the outside of the other foot.

Then there was Patrick Vieira, one of Arsene Wenger more spikiest of signings, another beautifully proportioned midfield player who was always destined to take his place in the Arsenal Hall of Fame. Viera was a controlling influence, spreading calm and composure wherever he went in the Arsenal midfield.  His passing was gorgeously accurate and he simplified a game that threatened to become very complex at times.

But then there was the darker and uglier side to Vieira's game. Now captain of a seemingly unstoppable Arsenal  he began to think that the football world was beginning to turn against him. There was the perhaps uncalled for aggression, the spiteful tackling and that famous pre match tunnel bust up with Manchester United captain Roy Keane. Of course Vieira could be rash and abrasive, horribly argumentative and plain irritable at times. But when the wind was in the right direction and the stars were in the right position then Viera was an unrivalled genius, a midfield general and commander in chief with so much to offer.

Who of course, could forget the inimitable Thierry Henry? With his career faltering at Juventus as a roving winger going nowhere, Arsene Wenger saw Henry as the best goal scorer since the likes of Charlie George and Frank Stapleton were presiding at the high office of the Arsenal forward line. Henry, in no time at all, would score some of the most sensational goals the old Highbury would ever witness. Ironically a wondrous curling shot from distance against Manchester United sailed past the United keeper and into the roof of the net.

And so we return to the present day and the latest antics of one Alexis Sanchez and the player who could be his potential replacement at the Emirates- one Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, allegedly the bad boy of football at the moment but we all know how they can be tamed in time. A deal with Aubameyang looks almost certain but some of the traditionalists may want to hark back to the innocent days of Charlie George and Ted Drake for goal scoring prowess.

With Arsenal out of the FA Cup but still quietly confident of a place in the League Cup-cum Carabao Cup Final, then all may not be quite lost at the Emirates. It is hard to imagine how any football team can find anything to get excited at a competition sponsored by a Thai energy drink. Still it has to be better than the Zenith Data Systems Cup.

In the not too distant future Manchester City may shortly be crowned as Premier League champions so Arsenal can only consider themselves as a full time member of the worthy runners up club. Those dissidents on the Emirates terraces who were waving their 'Wenger Out' placards so openly towards the end of last season look to have resigned themselves to another season of catch up and if  only.

The overriding objective at Arsenal has to be the now customary charge towards Champions League qualification. This season the Europa League, the farcically poor relation to its bigger footballing cousin, has to be their prime concern but for those conditioned to the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, a pervasive sense of anti climax may have set in.

Still it has to be admitted that Arsenal are still one of  the most entertaining and imaginative teams in the Premier League. Their football still has that unmistakable element of polish and beauty about it that when their movement is fully functioning, can carve open opposition defences with an imperious flourish. All of that glorious short, quick passing is rather like looking at the most scenic of landscapes in that glowing early morning light.

Now the man who could have been Arsenal's brightest star of all time is now plying his trade at another footballing art gallery. Alexis Sanchez, whatever the future may bring him at Old Trafford, may have his head turned by all of the criticism that has been sharply aimed at him. When Charlie George left Highbury for Derby County it was widely felt at the time that George simply wanted a change of scenery. But for Sanchez, Manchester United could be just another glamorous football team and a notable addition to his footballing CV.

With Chile out of this summer's World Cup in Russia it may be that Sanchez is simply one of those players with a wanderlust that can never be properly handled. But with the closure of the transfer window now imminent, Sanchez can now settle all his worldly belongings at Manchester United in the hope that nobody can bother him again. If only we could be a fly on the wall in the United dressing room. It is hard to imagine what exactly must be going through the mind of a Belgian named Romelu Lukaku. Still peace has broken out both Old Trafford and the Emirates. We must hope that Alexis Sanchez is blissfully satisfied.