Probably is.
It's a pity that it's had to end in such negative manner because I've always thought of Sancho as a top player. He has a lot of quality but with an attitude that doesn't match that ability, it resulted in failure at Man Utd.
Sancho's move to Chelsea is on a loan with an obligation to buy on a permanent deal next year for around £20m - £25m but this does depend on how Chelsea perform this season.
That fee is £48m less than the original £73m United paid for him three years ago. The Blues will also cover most of his £250k a week wage according to Chris Wheeler of the Daily Mail.
On joining Chelsea, Jadon Sancho had this to say:
“I’m really excited to be here. London is where I grew up and I’m happy to be back”.
“The manager spoke to me about the project and, for a young player, it's exciting”.
“Hopefully I can bring goals and assists to the Bridge”.
"I spoke with Nonzino about life in the Chelsea dressing room and he told me 'If a man's got his shank and you've got your shank, I beg you don't panic."
On his departure from United, Sancho gave a pretty simple goodbye, if you even want to call it that:
"Thank you to all the fans, staff and teammates @ManUtd. Wishing everyone all the best in the future."
Final Thoughts
This has got to be one of the worst deals we've ever done. There have been some truly terrible and toxic ones over the years but this is probably right up there with the Di Maria's and Sanchez's.
We wanted him so desperately four years ago and when he didn't join, we were all quite disappointed. We had to wait a year and when he arrived, there was a lot of excitement.
He repaid us by doing basically fuck all.
The only truly memorable moment he had at United was his goal against Liverpool two years ago.
He then had whatever his issue was for missing three months and was fully supported by the club, manager, team-mates and fans. We had never seen something like that before yet stood by him throughout his struggles.
When he came back smiling with the manager on the touchline during United's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the semi final of the Carabao Cup in February 2023, 102 days after his leave of absence, we all thought that he was back.
He wasn't, he never got into the side and then had the issue with ten Hag last season and proceeded to not play for the club for over a year.
He earned his wage throughout this time despite him not playing for his own reasons rather than injury or illness.
Sancho was then sent on loan to his former club Borussia Dortmund in which he appeared reborn when looking at how happy he was. Sancho's last post on X (Twitter) about United was back in July 2023 during MUFC's pre-season in the United States. As soon as he went back to Germany, we saw a flurry of posts on how he is happy to be back.
When comparing his two goodbye messages, chalk and cheese.
His United goodbye after having spent three years at Old Trafford was a simple sentence. His Dortmund goodbye after spending 6 months was truly heartfelt, almost as if he was leaving his boyhood club after many years and having conquered Europe.
This to me is the problem with him.
Whatever the issue was between him and the manager, us fans didn't do anything to him. We supported him when he was having his issues two years ago and all we wanted was to see the player from Dortmund.
But his lack of an apology for missing these two large periods of his time at United and no proper goodbye message says to me that he cares very little about the MUFC fans and the club itself, all over a feud with the manager.
This departure of his leaves a seriously sour taste in the mouth when it needn't have to.
I guess he's Chelsea's problem now. I don't even know where he'll play tbh.
Background Image: Jadon Sancho unveiled as a Chelsea player | Image via Chelsea official X (@ChelseaFC)