Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho sat out training on Thursday, sparking a tiring conflict of reporting on whether his absence is connected to a potential transfer to Manchester United.
If you only loosely followed football, you could be forgiven for believing Sancho is already a United player, given the sheer frequency with which his name is linked with the Old Trafford club. Sancho headlines without ‘Man Utd’ in there somewhere are a rarity.
The saga has been ongoing for over a year now, with 90min reporting back in September 2019 that the club were confident of making a deal happen at some point in 2020. Ed Woodward’s hardball strategy has put the deal in jeopardy, however – he believed Dortmund would eventually yield and lower their demands, but it appears that was a misjudgement.
Some fuel was thrown on the ever-burning fire when the club confirmed that Sancho, along with goalkeeper Roman Burki, would miss the German Super Cup due to a non COVID-linked ‘respiratory infection’. With the transfer deadline looming on Monday, many questioned the timing of Sancho’s absence, and that was amplified when he was also reported missing from training on Thursday.
Dortmund say it is a coincidence, as do Sky Sports, who say the German club still aren’t interested in a sale, given that United missed their August deadline by over a month. For Sancho’s part, he is also thought to have written off any hope of joining United this summer.
The desperation to keep the story going until Monday, however, is rife. The Express, in particular, have run with a story conflating the two, as they acknowledge Sky’s information, but then go on to speculate that ‘it could also be because United are preparing a second, improved offer’.
Back in the real world, United are looking at alternatives for Sancho, with Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé having emerged as a potential loan target. Barça’s request that United cover 100% of his wages might be a problem there, however.
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