WHY SAY ANYTHING?

It’s finally “Welcome to Manchester, Alexis Sánchez!” who attended his first day of training early-ish on Tuesday morning.

He is now officially a Manchester United player and has already had a pop at some Arsenal “legends” whilst also telling everybody where he would he best used at Old Trafford.

So good times are ahead!

Having managed to bring in the finished article in Sánchez, it is to be hoped that he can hit the ground running with United and that José Mourinho will not get him bogged down with too many tactics involving running back and tracking the opposition. That is not his game and would seriously restrict his effectiveness.

That, however, is for the future and, at the moment, the Chilean will just be concentrating on getting to know his new team mates.

He will be able to communicate with most of them as his English is OK and the likes of Herrera, De Gea, Mata, Valencia, Rojo, Bailly and Romero all speak Spanish. So the settling in process shouldn’t be a problem.

With his dogs to consider, Sánchez will be looking for a house, probably in Cheshire, with plenty of room and open spaces for them to enjoy. It is unlikely that he will take a city centre apartment which has become the norm with many of the Manchester City players and their manager.

Despite the popular belief that it rains more in Manchester than anywhere else, he is actually likely to experience the wet weather about the same as he would in London. He will just be living in a much nicer and friendlier city!

So everything is in place for his move to United to be an unqualified success and if he could start by helping United win a trophy this season he would achieve, almost immediately, legendary status at the club.

Manchester City have completed a signing which has been rather overshadowed by the goings-on at Old Trafford.

They haven’t signed a new player but they have agreed a new contract with Kevin De Bruyne which, some would say, is even more important than bringing in a new face.

The Belgian will now stay at City until at least 2023 and, even then, will only be 30 years old so the prospect of another new contract after this one cannot be discounted.

To City fans, this signing is at least as important to them as United signing Sánchez is to their supporters.

Stubborn Old Man has been extolling the virtues of Henrikh Mikhitaryan by pointing out that he “wants to play for Arsenal and will fit in very well”, possibly implying that, certainly latterly, the opposite was true of Sánchez.

However he chooses to spin this transfer there is no doubt that United have the better deal. It is as though Wenger, having accepted that Sánchez was not going to stay, decided to try and rescue something from another situation which involved his best player going to Manchester.

Mkhitaryan is only two months younger than Sánchez but is some way behind him in ability.

He can be a great player but he can also, as he has shown at United recently, disappear from games and become a liability. It could be argued that Sánchez is the same but it wouldn’t be true. Sánchez gets frustrated with his team mates occasionally, as do all great players, because he is often thinking ahead of them, but he could never be called a liability.

If Mkhitaryan can rediscover the form which persuaded United to buy him from Borussia Dortmund then Arsenal have got themselves a very good player and one who will be a big positive for them over the next few years.

No matter how well he performs though, he is unlikely to ever reach the heights of which Alexis Sánchez is capable.

In case anybody is still interested, Liverpool need a new goalkeeper. In their last game away at Swansea, Loris Karius didn’t really do anything wrong, he just doesn’t appear to inspire confidence in those around him.

And congratulations to Virgil van Dijk. He now has an assist to go with his goal against Everton. Only two games and a goal plus an assist already! Well worth the money!

The rest of the top six are having a lazy couple of days as far as transfers go.