Football journalist Fabrizio Romano and BILD Sport’s head of football Christian Falk joined former Premier League striker Jan Aage Fjortoft on the latest edition of his PodSaveTheBall podcast and the panel spent some time discussing the latest news regarding Borussia Dortmund attacker Jadon Sancho’s potential move to Manchester United.
It has been reported that Sancho is Manchester United’s ‘principal target‘ in the transfer window throughout the summer, however, it had also been reported that the player’s current club Dortmund had set a deadline of 10th August for a club to meet their asking price for the player. Earlier this month, Falk took to Twitter to declare that Dortmund’s asking price is €120m (£108.04m).
That deadline of 10th August has now passed and United are yet to agree on a transfer fee with the Bundesliga side for the 20-year-old winger.
As explained by the BBC, Sancho is currently with Dortmund ‘for this week’s training camp in Switzerland’ and the German club’s sporting director Michael Zorc has been quoted as saying: “We plan on having Jadon Sancho in our team this season. The decision is final. I think that answers all our questions.”
Romano provided an update on the Red Devils’ stance on this transfer following these latest developments during his recent appearance on PodSaveTheBall, saying: “At the moment, according to Manchester United and according to who’s working [on] the deal at the moment, not yet, it’s not over.”
The journalist then went on to clarify that Sancho is still Manchester United’s ‘priority target’, despite failing to meet Dortmund’s deadline.
He then stated: “They are frustrated [with Dortmund’s deadline]. Yesterday, I tweeted also about the position of Manchester United, they want to try again, but also, we have to respect Borussia Dortmund who say, ‘The player will stay here.’ We will see, but at the moment for Manchester United, the deal is not over.”
Should Manchester United have met Dortmund's asking price for Sancho before 10th August?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
Judging by Romano’s comments, it appears that United believe that they had no reason to go out of their way to sign the player before 10th August just because that is what Dortmund wanted, which may be understandable considering that United are allowed to sign players up until 5th October.
However, Sancho is under contract with Dortmund until the end of June 2023 and with that in mind, it may be fair to say that they are in no rush to cash in on the player this summer either, so while United may be “frustrated,” as Romano explained, perhaps they should have just paid the asking price for their “priority target,” especially when the £108.04m that Dortmund allegedly want is not far off the player’s market value of £105.3m according to Transfermarkt, so that may be a fair price for Sancho.