Manchester United's Next Jadon Sancho Bid 'Expected to Be Accepted' by Dortmund
By Tom Gott
Manchester United have come up with a way to satisfy Borussia Dortmund in their pursuit of winger Jadon Sancho, with the Red Devils' next bid expected to be accepted by the German side.
United were recently reported to have tabled a bid worth close to £89m for Sancho - the club did deny this, however - but it was stated at the time that Dortmund turned it down as they are adamant he will only be sold for €120m (£109m).
For United, the hope was that they could avoid breaking the £100m mark, but Dortmund's outright refusal to play ball has made things awkward to say the least. With an August 10 deadline slowly approaching, United have been forced to find a compromise.
That's according to Bild, who state that United have agreed to meet Dortmund's £109m asking price, but only if they can pay a large chunk of it through instalments.
The Red Devils are expected to offer an upfront fee of £63m before paying an extra £27m next year and a final £19m in 2022 - something which Dortmund are understood to be happy with as it ensures they get his full asking price eventually.
Dortmund were willing to accept similar terms when selling Ousmane Dembélé to Barcelona back in 2017, when the focus was solely on earning as much of their £130m asking price as possible.
There may be some legs to this one as a previous report has suggested that Dortmund would be happy to accept an up-front fee of £60m, suggesting that recent negotiations have revolved around finding an agreement on that aspect.
Without including any specific figures, Fabrizio Romano later suggested that United are focused on using add-ons to make up a large part of the deal in the hope of saving themselves some money in the short term.
All that appears left to do is sort out those future payments. It seems slightly unlikely that United will have agreed to pay the extra £46m in its entirety, so perhaps the idea of performance-related clauses will be explored.
That's how United chose to operate in their pursuit of Bruno Fernandes, who cost an initial £47m but could end up adding an extra £20m to that if he continues his red-hot start to life at Old Trafford.