Is Dortmund the Perfect Place For Sancho’s Revival?

By Soibi Versatile

It was about two and half years ago when Manchester united captured the signature of one of the brightest British talents in Jadon Sancho. The former Manchester City starlet was on the Red Devil’s radar for about a year before Ole Gunnar Solksjaer had captured his signature for £73m from German heavyweights Broussia Dortmund. The German club first held out for an initial £100m but seeing that united were ready to walk away they dropped his price down.

While many saw the £73m price as an exaggeration, United were hoping for master class performances which they had seen the young lad demonstrate in the German club. United did not have a right handed winger. They were hoping to use the English man to cover that position.

Sancho scored 50 times for Dortmund in about 137 appearances and his arrival was to spear head a title challenge for United as they had just finished second in the league the previous season. Sancho belonged to an elite of attacking options and with his dribbles and tricks many were salivating a plethora of good performances to enable them win their first league title in the post Ferguson era.

However it is was not to be as Sancho struggled in his first 6 months. Towards the month of February he sprung into some sort of life as he won the Manchester united Player of the month award in February 2022.
Sancho continued with a series of inconsistent performances until the season ended in an unfortunate low position for United at sixth, as United saw Ole Gunnar Solksjaer fired from his role and was replaced by Ralf Rangnick on Interim basis.

Erik Ten Hag took charge of United in the summer and Sancho was sent to Holland to do some rehabilitation to get him to his best. Sancho returned and was playing well till much later his performances dropped again. In August 2023 Sancho fell out with manager Erik Ten Hag after the dutch man told the press after the game against Arsenal that Sancho was not in the squad because he didn’t train hard enough, a statement that did not go down well in Sancho’s camp.

“On his performance on training we didn’t select him. You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game, he wasn’t selected.”

The 23 year old fired back on social media

“Please don’t believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!

Since then the manager and Sancho have not been in good terms with Ten Hag telling Sancho to apologize or else he would remain exiled from the first team. Sancho has since been training with the under 19 team with United struggling to win matches under Erik Ten Hag.

Why Sancho had to go on loan.

The winger has stuck to his guns and will not apologize to Ten Hag and this has led to the player seeking game time elsewhere. Sancho had a very successful time at Dortmund prior to his move to Manchester. He is hoping that the football made in Germany will resuscitate his career with Euros coming up, England will need their talented young winger in the best of shape.

Manchester United are out of all the cup competitions except the FA Cup while Dortmund are still in the champions league. Sancho knows the league well and he will be playing with team mates who he is more familiar with. Sancho has the perfect opportunity to rub salt in Ten Hag’s ego if he plays very well at his new team while United continue in their struggles. As things stand his loan move to Germany is his likeliest redemption package to justify his refusal to apologize to Erik Ten Hag and a proof to Manchester United fans that their club is a toxic one with a track record of ruining even the best of talents.

Soibi Versatile is Daily Memoirs Chief Writer.