Revealed: The Man Utd star who begged to leave after ONE training session

Suraj Radia

• 17 Dec 2025 19:27 GMT
• 4 min read

News

Reports have emerged of how one of Manchester United’s biggest ever transfer flops was ready to call it quits just one training session after making a big money switch to the club.

United have had more than their fair share of bad transfers over the years, to the point where fans may have even forgotten the brief tenure of Alexis Sanchez at Old Trafford.

The Chilean international had proven to be one of the standout players in the Premier League at Arsenal and it was seen as a major coup when United signed him from their rivals for €34 million plus Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January 2018.

The fee was a huge investment considering Sanchez had just six months remaining on his contract with Arsenal and it is alleged that he was offered a salary of more than €21m to fend off interest from Manchester City.

Sanchez scored just three Premier League goals in 18 months for United and the Daily Mail report that the forward called his agent after his first training session with the club to try and ‘abort’ his transfer from Arsenal.

The player later alluded that United’s standards were not what he expected, saying: “I would have loved to play, win everything, and make the fans happy. It didn't happen because of things at the time that weren't suited for a team of United’s size.”

Sanchez wanted Arsenal return after first Man Utd training session

Sanchez had previously spoken of the infamous training session which left him regretting his choice to leave Arsenal and admitted he never got over the ‘feeling’ during his time in Manchester.

"I accepted the opportunity to go to United, it felt tempting and it was something good for me, I liked this club a lot when I was a kid,” Sanchez said in 2020. “Eventually I signed but I didn't ask for information on what was happening inside the club.

"Sometimes there are things that you don't realise until you get there, and I remember the first training session I had, I realised a lot of things.

"After the session I got home and I told my family and my agent 'can you not rip up the contract to go back to Arsenal?'. They laughed, I told them there's something that doesn't sit right, it doesn't seem good.

"But I already signed, I was already there. After the first few months I carried on having the same feeling, we weren't united as a team in that moment."

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