Jadon Sancho whipped off his shirt as he raced away to celebrate, having just sealed the deal in last night’s UEFA Conference League final with a fantastic strike into the side-netting to make it 3-1. If that is to be his final contribution in a Chelsea shirt, it’s certainly not a bad one — especially for a player against whom one of the more consistent knocks had been his reticence to take shots.
Chelsea do have the option to make Sancho’s stay permanent, and given today’s market, that £25m is not exactly an outrageous fee (even with just a year left on his contract). On the other hand, it’s not exactly a huge penalty either to pay just £5m if we were to not take up that option, and simply send Sancho back to Manchester United (sorry, Jadon, it wouldn’t be personal I’m sure).
Enzo Maresca seemed to hint last night that he’d prefer the 25-year-old winger to stay.
“From now on is when we sit down with the club and decide about next year. Jadon Sancho, if we finished fourth, it’s because of Jadon, if we won tonight it’s because of Jadon. [...] During the season, everyone is up and down a little bit, that’s part of the game.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: TNT Sport via Yahoo! Sports
The final decision could come down to wages, as detailed by Sky Sports today. Sancho’s currently being paid as per the terms of his €85m move to United from Borussia Dortmund four years ago. While we don’t actually know those terms, they may be as high as £300k per week (with United covering 50 per cent during his loan). Regardless of the exact amount, it’s probably fair to say that it doesn’t fit into our current wage structure.
Would Sancho forgo that final lucrative year and take a paycut in order to stay at Chelsea? If yes — and talks are apparently ongoing — he might just do so. (And more reasonable wages could also improve any future market conditions for him, too.)