Manchester United are still feeling the financial damage from signing Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal who may have joined on a free but has cost the club millions of pounds with hardly any return from their investment. Sanchez has made just two starts in the Premier League this season and has only played 27 league minutes in total since the start of December.
The FA Cup has been the one tournament where Sanchez has been trusted to start, with him playing over an hour in the 2-0 win over Reading in the third round.
He is set to start once again for United as they take on Arsenal on Friday night with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looking to continue his perfect start to managerial life in Manchester.
According to a report in The Telegraph, Alexis Sanchez earns a base salary of £391,000 a week at United, which is a huge expenditure for a man delivering so little. The real shock comes when you realise that the Chilean winger is being paid £75,000 as a bonus every time he starts a game for Manchester United.
Added onto this, he scooped a £1.1m signing on bonus last January when he signed for the club and will also be paid £1m if Manchester United win the Champions League.
When Sanchez eventually reaches a combined 40 goals and assists for the club he will paid a further £2m although that particular milestone does seem a long way off at this moment in time.
United may have got Sanchez on a ‘free’, although they did swap him for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but he is turning out to be one of their costliest signings of all time. £75k just for turning up to work each week!