In our current age of protest, no perceived grievance is too small to get a few thousand people riled up. In that spirit, a Chilean Facebook group is organizing a protest in Santiago with one simple goal in mind: get Alexis Sanchez to leave Arsenal. The protest, which is organized by the appropriately-named “Campaign to Get Alexis Sanchez to Leave Arsenal” Facebook group, is scheduled for March 1st, and aims to have the multi-talented forward leave for a club where he doesn’t have to put the team on his back every game. We’re not sure why that means that they don’t want him to go to Real Madrid or Barcelona – two clubs where Alexis would certainly not operate alone – but the event has roughly 13 thousand people either attending or interested, so they must have their reasons.
This planned protest comes just days after Arsenal caught hands from Bayern Munich to the tune of 5-1 in the Champions League’s round of 16 – another defeat in a long history of the London squad underachieving in European competition. Alexis himself might have fanned the flames in his homeland twice over. First, by reportedly ripping into his teammates after the loss, and then by choosing to spend his upcoming weekend break (the Premier League is off for the FA Cup this week) in Italy, instead of back in London. Could Inter or Juventus be his next stop?
Regardless of where Alexis ends up this summer, whether it’s Milan, Paris, back in Spain, or still in London, at least we have this protest to immortalize the sinking ship of Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger era. Given that Alexis leads the Premier League with 17 goals so far this season, his departure could be the last nail in the coffin. We want to believe that this Santiago protest will be the hammer to push it in.