Alexis Sanchez replacement will cost Arsenal up to £70m, claims Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger believes it will cost Arsenal between £60m ($78.1m) and £70m to replace a player of Alexis Sanchez's calibre next year.

The influential Chilean has just over nine months remaining on his current contract in north London and was denied a £60m deadline day reunion with former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola at Manchester City after the Gunners failed in their quest to secure an 11th hour deal for long-term target Thomas Lemar.

Sanchez is extremely unlikely to pen fresh terms at the Emirates Stadium and is free to begin talking to foreign suitors about a free summer transfer as early as January, when City are also expected to revive their pursuit of his signature.

Wenger always maintained that the 28-year-old would not be sold this summer, claiming that Arsenal were willing to accept the financial sacrifice of losing him for nothing.

Addressing the Sanchez situation and the spiralling transfer market again during an interview with beIN SPORTS, he said: "You take a Sanchez into the final year of his contract, you sacrifice £60m to £70m income and at the end of the season you have to buy somebody for that amount of money. It has a huge price, so at some stage you have to make a decision, you have to sacrifice one or two.

"We have today 107 players in England who go into the final year of their contracts. It is a complete rotation and change in the way people see their career for two reasons. One, all the players expect higher wages because they anticipate inflation. Because the transfer market has gone up so much, the clubs do not want to pay such high prices on transfers for players who are good players but will not change their life."

Sanchez 'tired' of criticism

After his return from a post-Confederations Cup break was delayed by illness and an abdominal strain, Sanchez made his first appearance of the season for Arsenal last month in a humiliating 4-0 drubbing by Liverpool at Anfield.

He has since been unable to prevent Chile's 2018 World Cup hopes from taking a significant hit with consecutive Conmebol qualifying defeats to Paraguay and Bolivia and recently took to social media to declare his frustration.

"And tomorrow is coming," he wrote on Instagram. "You get tired for being criticised with or without reason, you get tired of wanting to be defeated, you get tired of saying to yourself 'once more I'll get up' after crying after a defeat, and you get tired of telling the world and people who are with you, that everything is going well.

"And the worst, is that no one ever realises how that makes you feel ... I have the 7 of Chile on my back and it is a huge responsibility, that's why it pains me that journalists and bad people criticise without knowing..."