Ole Gunnar Solskjær has revealed why Jadon Sancho never really hit the ground running at Manchester United after his £73 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
When Jadon Sancho signed for Manchester United from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of around £73 million in 2021, many hoped it would be the transfer that took United to the next step.
In that same summer, under then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the club also brought in Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphaël Varane, although the boss was sacked just a few months later.
When Erik ten Hag joined, he initially used Sancho. Still, a public spat between the pair eventually led to the winger being banished from the squad and sent to Borussia Dortmund on loan in 2024, before signing on loan with Chelsea for the 2024/25 season.
Despite the two clubs agreeing on an obligation to buy for £25 million, Chelsea then chose to pay £5 million not ot sign him, and instead he joined Aston Villa on loan for the remainder of the current campaign.
Solskjær never got to work with Sancho
On the Stick to Football podcast, Solskjær joined former teammates Roy Keane, Gary Neville, and Paul Scholes to discuss United’s current situation and his tenure in charge of the club, with Sancho becoming a prominent topic.
At one point, Neville turned to the Norwegian former striker and asked why the club had pursued Sancho for so long and why he felt it had never worked. Solskjær then revealed that immediately after signing for the club, Sancho was hospitalised with an ear infection.
Addressing why Sancho was targetted for a move, Solskaer said, “We wanted to take the next step — not move away from what we had, but add something different.
“In the final third, we wanted players who could break teams down, and Jadon, with his skill, link-up play, and little passes around the box, gave us that.”
Continuing, the ex-United boss revealed, “He was unlucky, though. Before he joined, he went on holiday — as you do — and ended up getting an ear infection. He was in hospital and really struggled for his first 10 days or so before he could even start training with us. That hasn’t really come out before.
“So, yeah, I never really got to play with him properly, because by the time he was finding form again, I was already on my way out.”
Sancho to leave United for free this summer
The contract Sancho signed for United back in 2021 is set to expire in the 2026 summer transfer window, and despite having the option to extend the deal, the club have reportedly already decided against doing so, and will let him leave for free.
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Although Sancho’s early struggles at United could be attributed to his hospitalisation and infection, this does not account for the eventual attitude and discipline issues that arose in the following seasons, which ultimately led to his three loan moves out of Old Trafford.
Now, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s team in charge of the club’s recruitment and Rúben Amorim at the helm, they are taking precautions to make sure that, alongside being high-quality players, recruits are also sound professionals.
The club conducts extensive background checks on every potential signing to assess who they are as model professionals and how they would fit into the squad and the club as a whole, which allows for a better guarantee that the Sancho drama will never be repeated.
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