Jamie Carragher and Manchester United legend Paul Scholes have made a damming “ability” claim towards Jadon Sancho after Aston Villa move.
Despite joining Chelsea on a loan with an obligation to buy last summer, Jadon Sancho didn’t join Enzo Maresca’s side at the end of the season because they chose to pay £5 million not to buy the Manchester United winger.
Sancho had concrete offers from Roma and several other clubs, but remained at Old Trafford until Deadline Day, when he finally joined Aston Villa on a season-long loan, following in the steps of Marcus Rashford after his six-month loan spell last season.
The two attackers were members of Rúben Amorim’s “Bomb Squad” in the summer, a group of five players that needed to leave before the end of the summer. Also included were Antony, Alejandro Garnacho and Tyrell Malacia, who remains at the club but could leave for Turkey or Saudi Arabia.
While Sancho did find a move, he remains a topic of United conversation, as he has many opportunities to leave Old Trafford permanently, but chose to keep his high wage and remain at the club, showing a lack of real ambition.
Carragher and Scholes slam Sancho
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate Show, Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes were asked about their thoughts on Sancho after his move to Aston Villa had been completed.
They both seemed to agree that Sancho does not have a standout quality, with Carragher even suggesting that his overall ability is not as good as many make out.
“It’s funny with Sancho,” said Carragher. “He got the reputation at Borussia Dortmund. I always go back to, me and Gary [Neville] were on Sky, on a show, and they asked us to pick an England squad.
“We hadn’t seen Sancho play too much, he was in Dortmund doing really well in the Champions League, and we didn’t put him in our squad and I remember everyone on social media were in on Sancho.”
Carragher continued to say: “I’m not sure there’s much ability there. He’s ok, I don’t understand what his thing is. I’ve been critical of Marcus Rashford, but if I picture Marcus Rashford play well, I can picture his pace, I can picture a shot, I can picture him taking a free kick and hitting the ball really hard. I don’t know what Sancho’s thing is.”
Later, Scholes intervened and said: “Look he’s got ability, hasn’t he? Like Jamie said though, what’s his strength? Does he cut inside and smash it in the top corner? Can he beat a man? Possibly links with the centre forward, little nice passes but no. I’m just not sure.”
Sancho’s discipline let him down
When Sancho first joined United, fans were excited and ready for the winger that Ole Gunnar Solskjær had been chasing for two years. But the reality wasn’t as good as the dream.
There were several occasions where United fans thought that Sancho had turned it around, especially when Erik ten Hag played him in central midfield after his three-month break away from the side.
However, his disciplinary issues continued to let him down, and it became clear that he would never succeed at United because of them.
In truth, Sancho could be a good fit for Amorim’s system as a left-sided attacking midfielder, but we will never see if it could’ve worked.
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