Jadon Sancho has sat out on the sidelines at the start of the season. He is one of five men, with Tyrell Malacia, Antony, Marcus Rashford, and Alejandro Garnacho, who are exiles from Man United.
Once the most celebrated player on that list, he has no club to call home. How has that happened?
A superstar set up to fail?
Sancho switched allegiances from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2021 as one of the most exciting talents in Europe. At the time, he was 21 years old, with the world at his feet, and a fee of £73 million was only fair for a player who was hitting double-digit goals and assists year after year.
But the transfer has not worked out. This was a player who arrived as an academy graduate of Manchester City with no first team minutes in England, and a lot of misconceptions about his game. For all the tricks, flicks, and highlight reels, he was not an explosive winger on the outside.
Especially once Dortmund moved to a back three with two tens under Lucien Favre, it was clear that Sancho is someone who thrives in central areas. He is capable of linking with his teammates, taking his time in the final third to find the killer pass, and he has the composure to finish efficiently.
Whether it was from the left or the right wing, he gave glimpses of his game breaking talents. The output was underwhelming: five goals in his debut campaign and two more than that tally the next.
The straw that broke the camel's back was a fallout with Erik ten Hag. The former manager of the Red Devils called him out after a 3-1 loss to **Arsenal**in September 2023, questioning his work rate in training. Sancho took to social media and reacted, claiming he had been a "scapegoat for a long time."
After the international break, the club came out with a statement to say Sancho would train alone from the rest of the squad. His days were numbered, and eventually he went away with a loan to Germany.
Sancho starts his journeyman phase
**Borussia Dortmund**welcomed him back with open arms. He lacked match sharpness, playing only 983 **Bundesliga**minutes, but the sparkle was back in the eye of a young man enjoying his craft.
His best bits were in the run to the **Champions League**final, most of all a stellar showing against Paris Saint-Germain, where he pulled off 12 dribbles and twisted the blood of Nuno Mendes.
There would be no fairytale ending against Real Madrid, but Sancho was in the groove again.
He returned to the Red Devils in the summer of 2024, seeking to put the past behind him. But there was still a sense that the damage was irreparable, and Sancho soon signed on a loan with Chelsea.
Within three minutes of his first Premier League start, he had assisted **Nicolas Jackson**in a 3-0 victory over West Ham United. A second assist fed Cole Palmer the next week in a 4-2 triumph over **Brighton,**and life at the boyhood club of the attacker brightened his reputation on English shores.
But the flame would soon extinguish from the Englishman. There were four more goal contributions from the 25-year-old for the Blues, and only two in the new year. For such a shot shy forward, he has a sharp shooting technique, drilling a low effort into the net against Tottenham Hotspur before hitting wonderfully whipped strikes against Ipswich Town and Real Betis at the end of the season.
It looked like **Chelsea**had locked into an obligation to buy the player for a fee of £20 million with £5 million in performance related add-ons. It would have required a finish outside of the top 14 in the **Premier League**for the attacker to not end up as a permanent option on their books this summer.
Or so it seemed. Sancho still wound up back at Old Trafford, as the Blues balked on a deal at the start of June and chose to pay a £5 million fine to compensate **Man United**for the inconvenience.
Staggering salary stifles negotiations
Ruben Amorim might have never had Sancho in his squad, but he is not budging to bring him back.
The critics might claim that the memories of such a public dispute with ten Hag has spoiled how clubs see his character. But if anything, time has been kind to the case of the attacker, who was not the only personality to come to blows with the Dutchman before he lost his job in the dugout last October.
Moreover, Rashford is the only player who has wrapped up a move somewhere else. He has only joined **Barcelona**on a loan, and there is no certainty that the Blaugrana will buy him next year.
Not for the first time, it seems that a significant factor is the financial package a deal would involve.
Sancho's second home is Dortmund, and now that the Schwarzgelben have sold Jamie Gittens for a fee of £52 million, there is a glimmer of hope that he could go back to Germany for good. But even his first return never looked likely to become permanent because of the strain from his pay package.
The 25-year-old reportedly earns wages in the region of £250,000 a week. It is the type of salary reserved for the best performers in a squad and is only more commonly seen in the Premier League.
If no other outfits from the top tier of English football want the attacker, then he would have to bank on being a marquee man for one of the biggest clubs on the continent. That was always unlikely.
At this stage, he is courting the interest of clubs lower down the food chain, who would be willing to take a gamble on his talent, but only for a reasonable financial outlay. The latest news reveals he has turned down an offer from **Roma**that is likely to have provided much less money in his pockets.
**Juventus**are in the conversation, while Sancho seems open to Besiktas, or other Turkish outfits, only from the start of September. Perhaps he is simply holding out in the hope that one of the big boys bank on his past exploits. But it would be a shame to see him waste away the final year on his contract, and he is running out of time to try to tunnel a way out of this nightmarish situation.