Reports this week have suggested that Chelsea are looking to offload Jadon Sancho back to Manchester United after taking him on loan this season. The Blues have an obligation to buy the winger but can back out of the deal by paying a “significant” penalty to the Red Devils. We don’t know the precise amount they would have to pay but they are reportedly considering it in order to avoid paying his £250k a week in wages.
For a while it seemed like Chelsea had gotten one over on United with the signing of Sancho on loan but that has changed in recent months. He started the season off hot with 3 assists in September and a series of excellent performances as evidenced by his FotMob rating.
Sancho even scored a vital goal in the 4-3 comeback win over Spurs to restart Chelsea’s engine that night and was dangerous all throughout the match. This was back on December 8th and since then he has added just one assist and no goals in the 19 matches he has been involved in. Of those 19, he has played more than 45 minutes in 14 of them so they were not just cameo appearances.
This lack of end product from a player that once showed so much promise in his days at Borussia Dortmund has caused Chelsea to consider possibly giving up on him and moving on. Sancho is still just 24 years old but he appears to not have what it takes to succeed in England after failing to impress at both Chelsea and United.
Manchester United reportedly have no intention of keeping Sancho if he does return and will be making plans to move on from him straight away. Perhaps Chelsea can explore selling him at a loss rather than paying the fee to send him back to United but this is something the club’s accountants will have to figure out.
The best way for Sancho to avoid this further embarrassment in his career is to use these final matches as a means of showing he is worth the money. He has little competition for the winger positions because of injuries and suspensions but that won’t be the case this summer when Geovany Quenda arrives and Mykhailo Mudryk is (hopefully) back from suspension.
It is unfortunate that a youngster with so much promise has seen his career derailed but he is still young enough where he can bounce back. He can also make his name with a smaller club without the pressure of a massive price tag and that is just fine too. The only near certainty right now is that Sancho wont be wearing Manchester red or Chelsea blue next season.