Manchester City offers £320,000 a week to Alexis Sanchez

Manchester City will redouble their efforts to sign Alexis Sanchez with a mammoth wage offer, according to the Daily Mail. The Chilean's future at Arsenal was once more put in doubt on Friday as he pulled out of training, ostensibly due to illness. And while the Gunners expect him to report for pre-season duty once recovered, a reported City offer of £320,000 a week is designed to put further pressure on them to release Alexis, whose contract is up next year. Manchester City are prepared to pay Alexis Sanchez close to the staggering £400,000 per week he wants. And the saga surrounding the wantaway Arsenal forward took an intriguing twist on Friday after he posted a sombre picture of himself tagged as 'sick' on his Instagram account. Arsenal confirmed that Sanchez is due back for pre-season training on Sunday. If he doesn't report for duty, fears of a move to City will only grow. Sportsmail understands that City will make Sanchez the club's top earner with a deal in the region of £320,000 a week. But that amount will be topped up by various performance-related bonuses and image rights. Meanwhile, Monaco have rejected Arsenal's latest £50million offer for winger Thomas Lemar. City players would offer a warm welcome to Sanchez and Claudio Bravo told 24 Horas: 'If he decides to go, we'll wait for him with open arms.' That will be reassuring news for Sanchez, who may have to wait a whole 12 months before eventually joining the goalkeeper at the Etihad Stadium.

Indeed, Arsene Wenger has insisted the club would rather lose Sanchez for nothing next summer than sell now. Of course, Arsenal will still hope to eventually convince Sanchez to sign a contract extension at the club, but Sportsmail understands the prospect of such an occurrence is looking bleaker than ever.