Manchester United Still Confident Of Signing Jadon Sancho

Manchester United remain confident of signing the Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho in this summer’s transfer window.

The Old Trafford club had been pursuing the player in recent months, but that has now been stalled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week the United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward sounded a note of caution about their ability to invest heavily in the transfer market amid such global uncertainty.

“I cannot help feeling that speculation around transfers of individual players for hundreds of millions of pounds this summer seems to ignore the realities that face the sport,” said Woodward.

However, United are still committed to doing major business in the forthcoming transfer window, with Sancho being their main priority.

Since the middle of last year United have diligently been working on signing the 20-year-old England international this summer.  

The south Londoner has been sold the idea of becoming the poster boy for English football’s biggest club and leading their resurgence.

The thought of being part of a young and exciting front three alongside his England team-mate Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial is another attraction.  

Rashford gave a hint to United’s plans earlier this month when he spoke about his interest in playing with Sancho: “I think our link-up play would be good,” he said. “Sancho is a great player, he’s like the new generation of player. It’s exciting to watch him become the player he is developing into. Hopefully we can all play together, that would be good.”

United’s failure to qualify for the Champions League derailed their plans to sign Sancho last summer, but that is thought to no longer be an issue whatever happens at the end of this season.

United are hopeful their persistence with Sancho, who wants to return to England, will now finally pay off.

United are also fully aware Dortmund are willing to do business and cash in on their prized asset.

Just this week the Dortmund Sporting Director Michael Zorc spoke about Sancho’s future, but made no effort to claim the player would be staying in Germany.

‘I cannot and do not want to lean too far out of the window with forecasts because the situation is changing daily,” said Zorc. “We will see what happens. We have a long-term contract with Jadon Sancho. This will not change now. We are totally relaxed about it.”

Woodward’s words last week were intended to be a dose of reality, but could also be read as a statement that United will not pay the large fees they are usually charged by selling clubs.

Dortmund still want the symbolic £100 million fee they have always hoped for, while United would look to negotiate some form of reduction.