Sancho signed for the wrong club and Klopp’s comments provide a painful reminder
Jadon Sancho was once tipped as a replacement for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool but could be set to leave Manchester United after falling out with manager Erik ten Hag.
Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag, winger Jadon Sancho and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag, winger Jadon Sancho and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool may have successfully fended off a bid from Al-Ittihad to lure Mohamed Salah away from Anfield this summer, but it seems inevitable that Saudi Arabia will come calling again.
The 31-year-old is under contract at Anfield until 2025 and signed an extension that made him the highest-paid player in the Reds’ history last summer. And while club bosses are adamant they won’t be leaving before the end of the latest transfer window, it will certainly be interesting to see if their resolve is as strong 12 months from now as the final year of the Egyptian’s contract approaches. Salah’s future could be in doubt as a result, but supporters increasingly agree that the striker will continue before his contract expires in two years’ time.
Regardless of the timing of the impending departure, such speculation has at least ensured that viewers are starting to wonder about life in Liverpool after Salah and the identity of potential successors. Kylian Mbappe is the first fantasy name that comes to mind due to the club’s long association with the World Cup winner. However, even if he were to immediately replace Salah and his hefty salary at Anfield, even the most optimistic supporter would expect the Frenchman to be beyond the Reds’ financial grasp.
Of course, this did not stop Liverpool fans from being excited about such an opportunity in the past, when their team was English, European and world champions. However, Mbappe was not the only money striker they were dreaming of at the time. If Jadon Sancho were still at Borussia Dortmund, still scoring goals and assists for fun in the Bundesliga and Champions League, the prospect of Salah leaving would inevitably lead to the England international joining the Reds as a possible cash replacement. Instead, he joined Manchester United in the summer of 2021 in a £73m deal. However, his name is not absent from such speculative discussion because he returned to England. Although he scored an impressive 50 goals and provided 64 assists in 137 appearances in four seasons at Dortmund, he only managed 12 goals and six assists in 82 appearances at Old Trafford.
At Dortmund, he scored 33, 40 and 36 goals in seasons, including an eye-catching 20-goal campaign in 2019/20, to attract United’s interest at the top. In contrast, he never scored more than 10 goals in a year for the Red Devils and missed three months of last season as he took time off to deal with physical and mental issues. Meanwhile, he has not been called up by England since October 2021 and missed out on a place at last year’s World Cup, making just one appearance for the Three Lions after missing a penalty for Italy. in the Euro 2020 final.
And now, two years after his cash-strapped move to Old Trafford, he could have played his last game for United after publicly falling out with manager Erik ten Hag. Left out of the Red Devils’ matchday squad to face Arsenal before the international break in September, Sancho made his absence known as he made it clear the player’s fitness level was not stupid. “Jadon, we didn’t pick him for training,” Ten Hag said after the 3-1 defeat at the Emirates. “You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United and we can make selections in advance. So he wasn’t selected for that game.”
Sancho denied his manager’s claim and released a 110-word passive-aggressive statement on social media just over an hour later, which he has now deleted from his X/Twitter page.
“Don’t believe everything you read!” he wrote “I don’t allow people to say things that are (sic) completely wrong, I’ve been very well exercised this week. “I believe there are other reasons for this topic that I won’t go into, l’ I’ve been the scapegoat, which is not fair! “I want to play football with a smile on my face and contribute to my team. “I respect all the decisions made by the coaching staff, I play with amazing players and (I’m) grateful for what I know. every week is a challenge. I will continue to fight for this brand no matter what!”
It remains to be seen if he will get the chance to do so on the pitch, essentially accusing his manager of lying on social media. The Telegraph have since reported that he held tentative talks with Ten Hag earlier this week, while ESPN claim that Sancho’s Manchester United team-mates have had enough of him and have run out of sympathy for the winger. Former United goalkeeper Ben Foster is not alone in pointing out that the England international would have been out if he had spoken out when Sir Alex Ferguson was still in charge. FYI, the Ten Hag was just as ruthless with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo last season, despite the Portuguese trying to leave Old Trafford, unlike Sancho vowing to “keep fighting for that brand”.
The England international has continued to be linked with Saudi Arabia following his public statement, with their transfer window open until September 7. Despite interest from Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq and reports that preliminary negotiations had opened, the move never materialised. close to completion. As a result, the future of Sancho