Chelsea joins the Jadon Sancho transfer race once again

Chelsea need goals next season and West London club could strike this summer as long-time transfer target Jadon Sancho is available once again. The only question that remains is, do the Blues need Sancho? The underlying question is really, how could Chelsea possibly need another winger? More so than that, how could Chelsea really need another attacking player? The bench is filled with attacking talent and there are a handful on loan who could feasibly be a part of the squad next season.

As the tail end of the season approaches and the summer transfer window comes into view on the horizon, Sancho is reportedly available. However, Man United—the club he so nearly joined last summer—is no longer as interested due to the emergence of Mason Greenwood. Sancho wants a return to England and United turning away from the winger opens the door for Chelsea to pounce and add to its embarrassment of riches up front.

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United’s search for a central striker has reportedly taken priority at the club, and most would expect the same to be said for the Blues. Despite signing Timo Werner last summer, with Olivier Giroud expected to leave and Tammy Abraham up for sale, the thought goes that Chelsea needs a clinical striker up front to give it a more potent focal point in attack.

Werner has yet to replicate his RB Leipzig scoring form, while Giroud and Abraham have been so starved of minutes they haven’t had a chance to make up for the German’s lack of scoring. Yet, the opportunity to sign a player of Sancho’s undoubted quality—and one that is just 21 years old—rarely comes around. It is one Chelsea should not miss.

What would Jadon Sancho bring to this Chelsea side?

The question remains, with only three attacking spots up for grabs, how does Sancho fit into a line-up that already has Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount as regular attackers? That’s not even mentioning Callum Hudson-Odoi waiting in the wings. The first point, and it will be a bitter one for Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech to swallow, is that Sancho will knock both of them down the pecking order. He is just all around better. Ziyech has seen a revival as of late, but like Werner, has yet to reach the soaring heights he was at when he joined the club.

Sancho, meanwhile, is just Hudson-Odoi a few years on in development; his final ball is better than Hudson-Odoi’s. While their pace and raw abilities match, Sancho is willing to run at opponents and put defenders on the back-foot, something Hudson-Odoi doesn’t do nearly enough. He trusts himself more than Hudson-Odoi does.

The directness of Sancho’s approach with the ball at his feet not only forces defenders into mistakes, it opens up spaces for others around him. Look at Sancho’s nutmeg of Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano at the weekend as an example, the audacity and ability to do that in such an important match was fantastic. It is the kind of wing play Chelsea fans do not see from a pass first Ziyech or a too cautious Hudson-Odoi. With Sancho at right wing, he will compliment a central striker of either Werner or Havertz. He’ll have the room to drift inside and feed Mount coming from deep or Pulisic coming in from the left if it’s Werner playing, or he plays off of the last man if it’s Havertz.

Sancho’s arrival will push Mount deeper into the double pivot role, but that isn’t a bad thing for the England international. Mount has shown he can play that more responsible role and not starting in the front three allows Thomas Tuchel to get another attacker in the line-up.

Pulisic is the natural left winger that perfectly complements a new-fangled Chelsea attack that features Sancho. Pulisic has struggled with injuries this season, but come next year, more will be expected of him to convert the chances he has. Sancho will either assist Pulisic or be a very dangerous option to leave open if defenders were to cover the American.

A lack of clinical finishing has cost the Blues repeatedly, but bringing in Sancho seriously aides that. A muscular injury limited him this season, but the winger has still compiled eight goals and 11 assists in 24 Bundesliga appearances. In 2019/20 Sancho scored 20 and assisted 20 across 44 appearances in all competitions, which was the second year running he had assisted 20 times in a season. Furthermore, a right wing partnership of Sancho and an overlapping Reece James could form the deadliest combo in Europe.

Much is made of the difficulty to adapt to the Premier League, with Havertz and Werner prime examples of those struggles, and most Chelsea fans would roll their eyes at the club buying another winger. However, if the Blues want to get more clinical without breaking the bank (i.e. for a certain Norwegian striker of the same club), they could do much worse than Sancho. Actually, adding Sancho might relieve the need to buy a central striker because of how clinical he is in front of goal. Even at £100 million, that still figures to be (at its most conservative assessment) about £30-50 million less than it would cost to bring Erling Haaland to the club.

Chelsea doesn’t necessarily need a central striker, it needs goals. Of the wingers the Blues have, outside of Pulisic, none are goal scoring wingers. Sancho has that threat. Werner might not be scoring like he was, but he is still getting into the right positions. There is every chance that this season was one of adjustment and he comes out and scores 25 goals next year. Adding Sancho provides another legitimate goal-scoring threat.

Few would want another winger at the club, but the depth and flexibility Chelsea would have in attack if Sancho moved to west London would make the Blues one of the strongest attacks in football. Add into it that Chelsea could sneak in and deprive a direct rival of Sancho’s qualities and it is just too good an opportunity to let slip.