Man Utd Retain Interest in Jadon Sancho & Contemplate Offer in 2021
By Tom Gott
Exclusive - Manchester United are still keen on Jadon Sancho and are contemplating trying to strike a deal with Borussia Dortmund early in 2021, prior to the European Championships, for formal completion the following summer.
United spent the best part of 12 months preparing their push for Sancho last season, but a refusal to meet Dortmund's demands saw the Red Devils drag the ultimately fruitless negotiations out through the entire transfer window, without results.
United were adamant that they would not pay over £100m to sign the 20-year-old, despite being just £10m away from Dortmund's asking price at one point, and Sancho was left frustrated at the two sides' failure to get a deal done.
After failing to land Sancho, United opted to spend £9m on Uruguayan winger Facundo Pellistri and around £19m plus add-ons on Atalanta's Amad Diallo. Sources have however confirmed to 90min that Sancho remains high on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's wish list.
Solskjaer has been unimpressed with United's start to the season - the Red Devils are 14th in the Premier League after seven games - and he has made it clear that he believes his side is missing an elite right winger like Sancho.
United know that bringing Sancho to Old Trafford in January would be almost impossible, but in an attempt to steal a march on the rest of the competition, they are contemplating trying to agree a deal in the winter window which would see Sancho move to Manchester in the summer.
It's something Dortmund are familiar with. They agreed to the same structure when they sold Christian Pulisic to Chelsea in 2019, keeping the American on loan until the end of the season.
However, there's an awareness that United can afford to be so slow in negotiations this time around, and with that in mind, club officials are already preparing a fresh approach to Sancho's representatives about a deal from January.
At the minute, Sancho's feelings on such an agreement are unclear. While he may prefer getting a deal done early just to have his future sorted out, the idea of waiting until after the European Championships, in which he could attract more lucrative offers with some stellar performances, has also not been ruled out.
United will wait until the summer if they are told that is the only option, but with plenty of other European giants expected to circle around a player whose future remains up in the air, the hope is that they can get ahead of the competition by getting things done early.