No he wasn't. Stop kidding yourself. Sanchez has never had to have been the go-to guy, to lead his club. He also had a certain Antonio Di Natale playing alongside of him. Sanchez is a fine enough support player, but he is not someone who can take a club on his back and drag the team through. And the signing of Neymar is irrelevant. It's not Sanchez who will be leaving, its Villa. And Lavezzi is almost 5 years older than JoJo. No thank you.
Oh, and one more thing on this. IF the BEST that Sanchez can do is score 12 goals, while being a support player to the likes of Di Natale and Messi, than what makes you think that he would explode into this fantastic goal scorer once the weight of that burden is placed on his shoulders?
Hey wait. I just thought of something else.
How is getting Sanchez, who is a year older, or Lavezzi, who is 5 years older at 20 million straight up cash, a better deal than a 23 year old captain for his club and country for 20 million + a player?