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Jadon Sancho is on track for a move away from Old Trafford this summer after a loan spell at Borussia Dortmund forced by the breakdown of his relationship with manager Erik ten Hag.
The Athletic recently reported that the breakdown in Sancho and ten Hag’s relationship came from the Dutch manager’s disappointment of the winger’s application in training prior to taking on Arsenal in September. with Sancho not pressing as much as ten Hag would like as an “opposition” player. Ten Hag offered Sancho the opportunity to leave the training early, which he took, and in turn the manager referred to Sancho’s training levels and effort after the 3-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium. Sancho’s response to this was even more public, turning to social media accusing the manager of double standards and essentially accused him of lying.
This ultimately saw the 24-year-old out on loan to Borussia Dortmund, where he made a name for himself before United bought him for €85 million. Being back in the Bundesliga, Sancho helped the German club to a fifth-place finish in the league and got them to the final of the Champions League where ultimately they lost 2-0 to Real Madrid.
Despite the team doing well, Sancho’s three goals and three assists in 21 appearances were not up to the form he’d left Dortmund in, previously grabbing 50 goals and 64 assists in 137 games, helping the club to winning the DFL-Supercup in 2019/20 and the DFB-Pokal in 2020/21.
Even though the winger has been trying to find his old self on the pitch again, Dortmund feel the potential is still there and have made him their priority target this summer, with the only sticking point being that of his extremely high wages, being higher than their current highest earner, Matt Hummels.
Joining Dortmund in the pursuit of Sancho, Serie A club Juventus have are also looking to the winger to strengthen their squad. The report explained that Juve are most likely looking at a loan deal for the 24-year-od initially, with the option to buy at the end, however their primary target is United teammate Mason Greenwood.
Now, Spanish publication Sport have announced that Barcelona have included Sancho in their shortlist of targets, after United have offered the England international to the Spanish club.
The report expressed that the La Liga giants are only interested in the winger if it is a loan deal, which is seeming more likely with both Dortmund and Juventus refusing to pay the €60 million price tag that United have on Sancho.
Although Sancho has declared his interest in playing at Camp Nou, Barcelona’s president Deco has two other targets at the top of his shortlist in the form of Liverpool’s Luiz Dias and Athletic Bilbao.
Barcelona’s new manager Hansi Flick is said to be a big fan of Sancho, and with a big name asset need to be offloaded before any purchase can be made, a loan deal for Sancho could be highly likely this summer.
