Is it time to call Jadon Sancho an €85m flop?

FT Desk

• Updated: 25 Oct 2022 14:50 BST
• 4 min read

Jadon Sancho has struggled to live up to expectations since swapping Borussia Dortmund for Manchester United in the summer of 2021.

Sancho left United's cross-town rivals Manchester City for Dortmund for just €9.2 million as a 17-year-old in back in 2017, and was soon held up as the poster boy for young players swapping England for Germany.

Things are coming good for Phil Foden now, but for the first four seasons of the senior professional careers, Sancho had twice as many top-flight appearances as his friend and former teammate did.

Sancho made quite some use of those senior minutes too. Since making his Dortmund debut in January 2018, the winger contributed 50 goals and 64 assists in 137 games in all competitions, winning the DFL Supercup and DFB Cup along the way.

His final season at BVB saw him contribute 36 goal-involvements in 38 games, and few eyebrows were raised when United agreed to pay Dortmund €85 million for his services, beating out a host of other potential suitors.

But Sancho has failed to scale the same heights in Manchester, and his latest ignominy was being hooked 52 minutes into United's 1-1 draw at Chelsea last Saturday for Fred, a defensive midfielder.

Decline since Dortmund

"At Dortmund he was doing it every week," Gabby Agbonlahor told talkSPORT, the latest to lament Sancho's decline. "His confidence is that low, does he feel like he doesn't have the speed or the trickery to get past someone?

"How many times do you have to play him? If you're [Cristiano] Ronaldo you're probably thinking 'how many chances is this guy going to get?'"

Agbonlahor may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he has a point. From contributing a goal or assist every 83 minutes he played in his final season at Dortmund, Sancho dipped to a goal-involvement every 310 minutes in his first season at Old Trafford.

That's down to 181 minutes this season, but a goal-involvement every two games on average is not what United spent €85m for, and while it could be argued that he still has time on his side, perhaps they wouldn't have spent €100m on Ajax's Antony this summer if they were willing to give him it.

Is there still a player in there? Very possibly. But Man Utd haven't been able to unearth, and Sancho would have to be described as a Red Devils flop.