Jadon Sancho has been offered to West Ham United as part of a deal which may have seen Mohammed Kudus go in the other direction to Premier League rivals Chelsea.
Now, this is a sentence few expected to see hit the headlines when the former Borussia Dortmund sensation was making his £73 million switch to Manchester United four years ago.
That Jadon Sancho is now being offered by Chelsea as a makeweight in an attempted swap deal with the team who finished 15th in the Premier League last season, well, this rather sums up the direction of travel for a footballer nobody appears to want.
And has any comment aged worse than Jadon Sancho’s infamous ‘freedom’ message following Marcus Rashford’s switch to Aston Villa in January? With his contract expiring next year, and Man United struggling to find permanent suitors, Sancho may soon be putting the ‘free’ into ‘freedom’.
Speaking exclusively to Hammers News, football correspondent Graeme Bailey explains that Chelsea offered a veritable litany of players to West Ham United in exchange for the much-coveted Mohammed Kudus.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Robert Sanchez, Carney Chukwuemeka, Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah were also names raised in discussions with the Hammers.
But with neither Graham Potter nor Kyle Macaulay particularly convinced by the idea, Chelsea instead opted to pay the £5 million cancellation fee in Sancho’s contract and send him – tail between legs and humble pie on plate – back to Manchester United.
Photo by Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Simon Jordan hits out at Jadon Sancho after West Ham United offer
A humiliating moment, indeed, for a man who can have few to blame other than himself for his seemingly never-ending malaise.
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Simon Jordan, straight-talking as ever and as blunt as a plastic steak knife, certainly cannot blame Chelsea for deciding against stumping up the £25 million sum agreed with Man United during the summer of 2024.
Sancho’s late clincher during the Europa Conference League final victory over Real Betis last week was typical, really, of his spell at Stamford Bridge.
Fleeting flashes of quality, the odd island in a sea of anonymity.
“I was assuming would be paying the £5 million [termination fee], Chelsea,” says Jordan, the former Crystal Palace chairman-turned-pundit. “Sancho hasn’t set the heather on fire at Chelsea.
“He had a few moments and, all of a sudden, people started to whip United because at the start of the season Sancho looked like he was going to do something.
“[But] Sancho has looked like he is going to do something for a long period of time!
“I think he is one of those that has got lots of talent and seemingly a view of themselves that other people don’t subscribe to, which is he can do as he wants.”
Mohammed Kudus attracts Premier League interest amid Liverpool links
While stat-padding against the likes of Legia Warsaw, Heidenheim and Djurgarden in Europe’s third-rate club competition, Sancho’s record of three goals and five Premier League assists as a Chelsea player was – like so much of his time in English football – largely underwhelming.
As for Kudus, a spokesman for the West Ham board has exclusively informed Hammers News that three rival Premier League clubs want the Ghana international. Alongside Chelsea, there have been regular links with Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle.
Meanwhile, West Ham have identified Marcus Tavernier of Bournemouth as a potential, if not entirely like-for-like, replacement.
While lacking the star power of Kudus, the £25 million-rated Tavernier ranks highly amongst the Premier League’s best in terms of progressive passes and carries into the final third.