Euro 2020(1) is on a brief hiatus right now until tomorrow when the quarterfinals begin, but the summer transfer window is open for all Premier League/European clubs and Manchester United have made quite the splash by signing England winger Jadon Sancho from German club Borussia Dortmund. The fee has not been confirmed by a single source yet but it is believed to be in the £73m – £80m range (m = million), with add-ons and performance-based incentives. For Americans, that is about $100m -$110m.
Is that a lot of money for one player? Yes. Is that perhaps too much money for one player? Maybe, but there are multiple factors to consider here. For one, the average transfer fee has skyrocketed in the past 20 years due to the influx of international audiences and the subsequent TV revenue they bring in for the clubs. Once upon a time Premier League teams would struggle to afford million-pound transfer fees, but nowadays a million pounds for a player is seen as virtually nothing. Shoot, if your team signs a guy for £10m it’s seen as a good bit of business.
Further, United actually got Sancho on a bit of a discount. We have been rumored as trying to buy him for the better part of 2-3 years now, and last summer Dortmund wanted over £100m ($137m) for him to help offset their losses from the pandemic. United wisely refused to meet that number, because for me there are very few players actually worth that amount of money. Sancho has done well in Germany and I think he will be great at United, but he simply was not worth that much. We instead bought three younger and much cheaper players, one of which (Amad Diallo) scored a crucial goal for us against AC Milan in the Europa League.
Lastly, Sancho is not even the most expensive transfer in our history. That record is still held by Paul Pogba at £89m ($122.5m) which we paid to Juventus a few years ago. The price for Sancho also pales in comparison to the world record for a transfer for any player, which is the £198m ($272.5m) paid by Paris St. Germain to Barcelona to secure the services of Neymar. The world of football balked at that number and understandably so. It’s possible that transfer fees have even gone down a bit since then, in reaction to that frankly ludicrous amount. There are rules surrounding how much money clubs can spend on players, referred to as Financial Fair Play, but there are a number of ways around those rules and the penalty for breaking them is usually only a fine. When your club is literally owned by the government of a country (PSG), a fine is nothing and they owners will gladly pay it if it means they can buy whoever they want.
Back to the topic at hand – tactically, where will Sancho play? He has played on both wings and as an attacking midfielder at Dortmund, but United will more than likely employ his talents on the right wing. United have been in desperate need of investment at that position for well over a decade now. Last season, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford excelled at breaking down the opposition on the left wing, but teams soon figured out that our left wing was much better in attack than the right side. We were kind of one-dimensional at times last season, especially as we got near the end of it. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is a great tackler but is not known for attacking prowess at right back, and while Mason Greenwood has shown flashes of competence on the right he is naturally a center-forward and not fully suited to playing the right wing. Rashford can play on the right if need be, but again he seems to be more comfortable on the left. The addition of Sancho changes all that. His dribbling and pace will create spaces for other players and cause defenders all kinds of problems, plus he is also much more of a playmaker than Greenwood. Defenses will be sweating at the prospect of having to shut down both sides of the pitch now.
I also like that Sancho is English, as I feel it is important for United to develop English talent. We have had a lot of great England players over the decades and I think Sancho will be a fine addition to the ranks. He just needs to play with tenacity and develop good chemistry with everyone else, which will come with time and training. Him and Bruno Fernandes playing together could be an absolute dream. His versatility, meaning the ability to play on either wing with success, is another trait of his I like.
Potential Line-ups:
————Greenwood———
Rashford — Bruno —– Sancho—
or
————-Cavani————
Rashford—-Bruno—-Sancho—-
or
———–Cavani———–
Martial—Sancho—-Rashford
or
———–Greenwood———
Sancho——Bruno—–Rashford
As illustrated, Sancho gives us a lot more options in attack and allows manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to really experiment with his attacking selections. Having an-all English front three will also be good for the chemistry of the national team. If those three can really get firing on all cylinders, that is great for both United and England.
Very pleased this transfer has been done with some expediency. Our transfer folks usually struggle to get them done. Now we just need a center back and a defensive midfielder to really make this a successful transfer window. For me, those are the areas we need the most help in. A lot of people want us to sign attacking midfielder Jack Grealish or strikers Harry Kane and Erling Haaland, but I’d rather we shore up the back some more. Nemanja Matic is the only natural defensive mid that we have, and while he is good he is aging rapidly and can’t be used in every match. Harry Maguire is our stand-out center back and Victor Lindelof usually does well beside him, but his lack of pace is sometimes exposed by speedy forwards. He is too similar in style to Maguire in that he relies on strength and positioning to defend well. He’s good at it, but again it makes us easier to strategize around. Eric Bailly has plenty of pace, but he has a tendency to make very rash decisions that lead to mistakes. We need a center back alongside Maguire who has both athleticism and also consistently makes good decisions on the ball.
Glory Glory Man United!
4-4-2 