Arsenal has descended into civil war as the presence of Alexis Sanchez has created divisions in Arsene Wenger's squad, according to reports.
Issues within the team became apparent on Thursday (December 28) when Sanchez fired Arsenal ahead against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. The Chilean was joined in celebrations by Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette and Shkodran Mustafi but others refused to get involved.
But the divisons will not have been news to Sanchez. His teammates made their feelings clear to him in a dressing room inquest following Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Southampton earlier this month, according to the Daily Mail.
Jack Wilshere, a product of the Arsenal academy, was one of a group of players who confronted Sanchez over his attitude in the squad, with Wilshere criticizing him for wastefulness on the ball.
Sanchez wanted to leave the Emirates Stadium in the summer when Pep Guardiola looked to take him to Manchester City, the Premier League's runaway leaders.
And he is expected to get his wish in January, with Arsenal willing to sell or face losing Sanchez for nothing in the summer when his contract in north London expires.
Alexandre Lacazette, left, Alexis Sanchez, center, and Granit Xhaka at Selhurst Park, London, December 28. Sanchez has reportedly created divisions within the Arsenal squad. Catherine Ivill/Getty
Indeed, many at Arsenal hope to see him exit in the new year. Members of the squad, and even some of the back room staff at Arsenal, have become exasperated with the Chilean.
Wenger and members of his team are believed to have changed their mind about listening to offers for the 29-year-old as there is a belief that his work-rate has dropped. After the victory against Crystal Palace, Wenger insisted he didn't fear losing Sanchez in January.
"We are focused on short term, that means the next game with the players committed and ready to fight. It's not a guarantee of how long you stay somewhere.
And Sanchez's next opportunity will be on New Year's Eve when Arsenal travel to the Hawthorns to take on West Brom. They then face Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on January 3.
By that time, the transfer window will have reopened and City may have already made contact over Sanchez. The departure of Arsenal's best player could help the team; the civil war would be over.
Armed pro-Russian rebels stand on a captured Ukrainian tank in the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve in the Donetsk region, on February 20, 2015. Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty
Mercenaries are “an illegal way to provide cannon fodder for the Kremlin's foreign adventures,” says Kirill Mikhailov, an activist at the Moscow-based Conflict Intelligence Team, a group that gathers open-source intelligence on Russia’s covert military activities. “But even though they are mercenaries, they are still Russians, and we believe the Russian public has the right to know about Russians dying while doing Putin's dirty work abroad.”
A picture taken during a press tour provided by the Russian Armed Forces on September 15, 2017 shows a Russian soldier looking through the scope of a sniper rifle on the outskirts of Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. Dominique Derda/AFP/Getty
The Russian president has also been photographed with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg entrepreneur dubbed "Putin's chef" by Russian media because of his extensive restaurant and catering businesses. The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed banking and travel sanctions on Prigozhin for his stake in Moscow-based Evro Polis, an oil and general trading company. Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny has revealed deep commercial ties between Evro Polis and the Russian Defense Ministry—and the independent fontanka.ru news site has called Prigozhin a front for Wagner Group’s activities in Syria. (On its website, the company lists interests in mining, oil and gas production, and in 2016 it opened an office in the Syrian capital of Damascus.) Neither Evro Polis nor Prigozhin's Concorde Management responded to Newsweek’s requests for comment.
Smoke rises from buildings in the area of Bughayliyah, on the northern outskirts of Deir Ezzor on September 13, 2017, as Syrian forces advance during their ongoing battle against the Islamic State (IS) group. After breaking an Islamic State group blockade, Syria's army is seeking to encircle the remaining jihadist-held parts of Deir Ezzor city, a military source. George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty
Wagner’s more valuable role on the ground allegedly was to help the Kremlin assassinate rebel leaders who refused to follow orders. Last November, the Security Service of Ukraine published what it said were intercepted audio recordings that proved a direct link between Utkin and Igor Kornet, the interior minister of the Luhansk People’s Republic, ordering Wagner to eliminate dissident commanders. In March 2016, a Russian nationalist website, Sputnik & Pogrom, boasted that Wagner men liquidated more than 10 Luhansk militia fighters, along with their unruly commander. The Security Service of Ukraine also claims that Wagner disarmed the Odessa Brigade of the Luhansk People's Republic army after surrounding its base in the city of Krasnodon with the support of tanks and artillery.
Pro-Russian fighters arrive on February 20, 2015 in Debaltseve, Ukraine, the strategic railway town of Debaltseve. Pierre Crom/Getty
In an interview, Robert Young Pelton, author of Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, tells Newsweek the Wagner forces in Syria are mostly functioning as “forward advisers...training and then directing fire and movement on the front lines.” Pelton adds that one of his sources working in Deir ez-Zor told him that the quality of the fighting Russians was “not that impressive...not many professionals in the team and too much blood.”
In December, three months after their son’s capture, Tsurkanu’s parents said in an interview with TV station Dozhd that Wagner operatives moved into their house to prevent them from speaking to the press. They were later told—again by Wagner—that their son had been killed. “I was naive,” Tsurkanu’s weeping mother told Dozhd in November. “Putin once said, 'We don't abandon Russians.' I believed it. Now I understand that was a lie. Damn them, Wagner, all of them.”
Sergei Zheleznyak, deputy head of the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, concurs. “The American use military contractors all the time,” he tells Newsweek. “Why shouldn't we?”
Holly Hammond is the director of Plan to Win, an Australian project to assist individuals, groups and campaigns to develop the skills and clarity required to win change in the world. Through Plan to Win Holly offers facilitation, training and mentoring, as well as convening the Melbourne Campaigners’ Network.
Holly has been facilitating groups since she first became politically active at high school in the early 1990s. She has experience of activism in a number of social movements, including youth rights, women’s liberation, sex industry law reform, labour rights, peace and environmentalism. She has been employed in a diverse range of community based organisations in advocacy, publications, organising, policy, management and community development roles. She is passionate about planning, developing coalitions, ending oppression, building community and assisting activists to lead balanced and rewarding lives.
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