Jadon Sancho’s Man Utd move promised so much. It turned into a nightmare
Jadon Sancho arrived at Manchester United in 2021 and said it was a “dream come true”. It ended up being a nightmare for all involved.
The England international winger’s five-year spell at Old Trafford promised so much, yet delivered so little.
When he signed from Borussia Dortmund, the former Manchester City academy graduate was overjoyed. But it would turn out to be a very expensive mistake for United, one that drove the career of a player seemingly destined for the top well off-course.
The cold cost of the transfer laid bare is startling.
United paid Dortmund £73million ($97.6m at the current rate) to sign Sancho and agreed wages of £250,000 per week, as The Athletic reported when he joined them.
That would bring the total cost of the transfer to £138million, although substantial figures would need to be deducted from that, given he has had subsequent loan spells back at Dortmund and to Chelsea and Aston Villa over the past three seasons, where significant portions of his salary were paid by the clubs who borrowed him. There were also significant wage cuts — around 25 per cent — in campaigns when United were not competing in the Champions League, while Chelsea also paid his parent club £5million to get out of an obligation to buy Sancho last summer.
Yet there can be little denying this was a wildly-expensive deal which did not work out for United, as his time at the club draws to a close, with Sancho having scored only 12 goals and provided six assists in 83 appearances (just 41 of them Premier League starts) for the Old Trafford side across the five seasons.
When United signed Sancho, he had only recently turned 21. They previously tried to prise him away from Dortmund 12 months earlier but could not agree a fee.
After then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side had suffered defeat in the Europa League final against Villarreal on May 26 to complete their 2020-21 season, a recruitment meeting was held the next day with the idea of landing Sancho as quickly as possible.
They felt the London-born winger could help provide a creative spark for Solskjaer’s attack, and they were prepared to do what was needed to land someone who had scored 50 goals and registered 64 assists in 137 appearances over four seasons in Germany.
When the deal was done, Sancho had just been part of an England team which reached the Euro 2020 final (held in 2021), although he did miss one of the penalties in the shootout loss to Italy that night at Wembley. Still, there was huge excitement around Old Trafford about his arrival.
Jadon Sancho was one of Europe’s most exciting young players when he joined Manchester United (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
Yet almost immediately, things started to go wrong.
Sancho contracted an ear infection before he could meet up with his new team-mates and the issue meant his integration into the squad was delayed.
The unexpected return of Cristiano Ronaldo for a second spell at United later in that same summer window also became a problem for the Englishman.
Many thought the creativity Sancho had shown at Dortmund, and his prolific relationship with striker Erling Haaland there, could be replicated at Old Trafford with Ronaldo up front. However, Solskjaer had spent that off-season devising how United would play with Sancho in an attacking unit alongside Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Dan James, with the likes of Bruno Fernandes just behind.
Ronaldo’s arrival caused a change in how they would need to play to accommodate a ruthless goalscorer who, at age 36, was not as mobile as he once had been.
Sancho’s preference to play on the left side of the attack also led to competition with Rashford for that spot, rather than the pair complementing each other on either side of the pitch. United scouts had believed he would fit in on the right.
That debut season did not turn out well for anyone at United.
Solskjaer was sacked in the November, and the club failed to qualify for the Champions League under interim replacement Ralf Rangnick.
The following summer, Erik ten Hag arrived as the new manager, and the mood appeared to be positive around Old Trafford as United climbed the table and won the Carabao Cup, beating Newcastle 2-0 in the final.
However, it was a difficult time for Sancho. Ten Hag made public that the player was suffering from personal problems, and he was given time off to deal with them.
The Dutchman assisted in providing Sancho with one-on-one coaching in the former’s homeland to help him both physically and mentally while he was unavailable for selection for three months.
When Sancho returned in early February, off the bench in a Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest with United 3-0 up on aggregate, it felt like a moment of gratitude between the player and manager. It was hoped at the club that he could really kick on, and he did start the FA Cup final that season, although the game ended in defeat against neighbours Manchester City.
Jadon Sancho and Erik ten Hag had a difficult relationship (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
It was a fairly routine post-match press conference question put to Ten Hag about why Sancho was not in the matchday squad for a trip to Arsenal a month into the following season.
United had just lost a dramatic game at the Emirates Stadium in which they had a late go-ahead goal ruled out for offside before conceding twice late on for a 3-1 defeat.
There was more drama to come as Ten Hag bluntly said Sancho had been left out because of his performance in training. He had previously come off the bench in United’s first three games of that 2023-24 season.
Sancho would never make another Premier League appearance for the club.
He then hit out at Ten Hag on social media and claimed he was a “scapegoat”. The post on X was later deleted but the accompanying apology United’s manager demanded would never come, despite pleas from other staff members as well as team-mates.
The winger did not agree with Ten Hag’s assessment of his efforts on the training pitch.
The Athletic reported at the time that he felt Sancho had performed poorly when asked to replicate Arsenal’s style in build-up as one of the players who would not be starting that game.
The day after the loss in north London, Ten Hag showed Sancho videos of training sessions to press home his point. The player still did not agree and would not play again until he returned to Dortmund on loan four months later.
United struggled in the Premier League and Champions League that season, which put Ten Hag under serious pressure.
They finished eighth in the league and bottom of their group in Europe, but a surprise FA Cup final win over City saved the Dutchman from the sack.
However, United had new investment from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS business empire, and a new sporting team appointed around Ten Hag.
They convinced the reprieved Dutchman to reintegrate Sancho in pre-season preparations for 2024-25, but it was a step intended to help the club move the player on.
Chelsea agreed a season-long loan with an obligation to then buy for £25million but, as previously mentioned, they preferred to pay a £5m penalty in the contract to return Sancho to his parent club, despite him helping them win the UEFA Conference League across his 41 all-competition appearances.
Again, United looked for suitors last summer but Sancho did not find any possible destinations attractive: with just 12 months left on his deal, he knew he would be a free agent soon. He opted for another loan, to Villa, and again, he won European silverware as Unai Emery’s side lifted the Europa League trophy last month.
That made it three European finals in as many loan seasons, having also played in Dortmund’s defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League decider in 2024.
His last kick of a football in anger for United came that summer, when he failed with another Wembley penalty, this time in the Community Shield against City.
That was not such a costly miss, given it was not a major trophy.
The truly costly miss was the transfer itself.
United spent heavily to sign a player who was one of Europe’s most coveted young players at the time, but five years on, there is little to show for it.
For all the promise, the Sancho deal will be remembered as one of the club’s most expensive miscalculations of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
What began as a dream move for a rising star viewed as among England’s brightest young talents will end with neither club nor player getting anywhere close to what they hoped for when he put pen to paper.