The chairman of the Etihad outfit has revealed why the Chilean winger ended up at Manchester United.

The chairman of Manchester City, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, has explained why the club did not land the signature of Alexis Sanchez in 2017. Prior to joining the cross-town rivals of the Citizens, the 29-year-old forward was linked with a move to reunite with Pep Guardiola after constantly proclaiming his desire to leave Arsenal.

The Gunners, as a result, placed a 40 million price tag on the former Udinese and Barcelona man while the player himself held out for wages in the excess of 500,000 euros. According to Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, the fee was simply unreasonable, hence paving the way for Sanchez to join Manchester United in a swap deal which saw Mkhitaryan join Arsenal in the last winter transfer window.

Speaking in Manchester City's newly released All or Nothing documentary which captures happenings around the club in their inspiring title win last season, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak said:

"We identified him as a player that was a good fit for this club," as cited by the Mirror.

"Pep was very keen to have him join (in 2017) but it didn't happen. Not for the wrong reasons. There aren't any regrets.

"We looked at the situation again in January but the situation changed for us from how we looked at it in the summer and how we looked at it in the winter.

"And the reality is the economics simply didn't work anymore."