Alexis Sanchez is causing problems at Manchester United.
The Chile star joined Manchester United in January in a stunning swap deal for Henrik Mkhitaryan, who joined Arsenal.
But Sanchez has struggled to find his form under Jose Mourinho and is now not even a regular starter.
He did start the comeback win over Bournemouth on Saturday but his goal in the win over Newcastle was his only one of the campaign.
The 29-year-old has been in and out of the team, coming off the bench on three occasions, but missed out on the match day squad completely against West Ham.
And now he’s causing rifts in the camp – because of his exorbitant wages.
Sanchez was signed on what was effectively a free transfer, meaning United could pay him a bigger wage than if they’d had to pay a transfer fee.
But his terms are thought to reach around £500,000 a week with various add ons – making him the highest paid player at the club and in England.
And, with United looking to tie down a number of other players in the coming months, those figures are coming back to bite them.
There has been little progress in deals for both David de Gea and Anthony Martial, both technically out of contract this summer.
United do have clauses which will allow them to trigger one-year extensions, but the preference remains to tie them down to longer-term deal with fresh terms.
De Gea currently earns £175,000 a week, and is looking for almost double that with the £300,000 figure in sight.
Martial meanwhile takes home £75,000 and is also looking for at least double to sign on longer.
And Woodward will have to earn his own wage to convince both players to sign new contracts before the turn of the year.
Mourinho admitted last week that he was not confident of De Gea signing a new deal.
“I am not confident,” he told Sky Sports. “I cannot find the word in English, but let’s see what happens.
“Only the club, David and his people can answer that. My comment is only that everyone knows how good he is, how important he is for Manchester United and, if the club want to be better than it is and not worse, obviously it would be very important to keep David.”
Mourinho also urged Martial to pen a new deal after his upturn in form.
“I don’t belong to the discussions of contracts,” Mourinho said.
“I don’t even know their contracts in the sense of numbers and I’m really happy with that – to not have to participate in these types of discussions.
“Obviously I hope we will agree. He is a talented player – everybody has known that since he was at Monaco. Another thing is a talented player with consistency and understanding what a football match is in the globality.
“When you reach that level or are almost reaching that level is when you become a top player. One thing is a top talent, another thing is a top player.
“When he is now much closer to becoming a top player, obviously I would like him to stay. I know the club very much wants him to stay so hopefully he is going to stay.”
And while it is uncertain if both players will agree new deals or not, it would surely be a lot easier if Sanchez wasn’t earning so much.
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