City won’t have Pogba problem with Sancho
JADON Sancho gave City and their supporters a reminder of his prodigious talent at the weekend.
The 18-year-old created history by scoring his first senior goal and in turn becoming the first Englishman to score for Borussia Dortmund. He also provided two assists for good measure as they breezed past Bayern Leverkusen.
Sancho controversially left City in August 2017 after manager Pep Guardiola left the youngster out of the club’s pre-season tour of America amid a contract dispute which saw him fail to report for training. It resulted in a departure that split Blues fans.
Some queried why such a bright young English talent - arguably the brightest at the club at the time - was allowed to leave.
Others questioned his attitude and offered the view that anyone who isn’t fully committed should be shipped out.
Fresh from becoming Premier League champions for the third time, though, City’s attention is understandably elsewhere as they enjoy their celebrations.
However, the parallels between Sancho’s departure to Dortmund and Paul Pogba’s exit from United in 2012 to Juventus are hard to ignore.
Re-signing Pogba cost United a world-record fee of £89m in 2016.
Could Sancho come to be viewed as a similar costly ‘mistake’?
Not quite. Assuming City ever want to take the winger back to the Etihad, they have first refusal on him under the terms of his sale to the German club.
Along with that, there is also a sell-on clause of 15pc of anything above the £8m Dortmund paid for Sancho. City are already well up on the £66,000 they paid to take the then 14-year- old from Watford in 2015.
It could be argued his time has already passed.
Sancho’s former City youth teammate Phil Foden has been described as a ‘gift’ this season by Guardiola and is gradually being integrated into the first team.
But at just 17-years-old, minutes have been hard to come by for the youngster, and the Stockport youngster has watched most of City’s history-making season from the bench.
While Foden has amassed 47 minutes of first-team football, Sancho has played in nine games getting 423 minutes of Bundesliga football under his belt.
First-team football in one of Europe’s top divisions, with one of Europe’s best clubs, should benefit Sancho in a similar manner to the ascent Pogba’s enjoyed at Juventus.
And he has certainly impressed his Dortmund team-mates, with German star Marco Reus claiming he is ‘better than me at 18-yearsold.’
City are understood to have been disappointed he chose not stick around longer. But, they are in a win-win position. If he doesn’t hit the heights, they have bagged a decent fee for an unproven player.
If he does, there’s always that buy-back option.