Chelsea have completed the signing of Jadon Sancho from Manchester United.
According to Fabrizio Romano, the winger joins on a one year loan deal, with a £30m obligation to buy included at the end of the season.
After a week of whispers about a potential swap deal with United where they would take Raheem Sterling from us in return, it has become effectively a straight transfer for Sancho. Somehow the Red Devils have managed to move on a player they don’t want – and Chelsea are the suckers buying him.
What chance they try and flog us Anthony in January?
Manager Enzo Maresca told the media that Sterling needed to leave because there would be no minutes for him in this team. Yet somehow it makes sense to spend £30m on a player in that same position a week later.
Meanwhile, we’re still short an elite striker, an elite goalkeeper and a true defensive midfielder.
Make it make sense, as they say.
🚨🔵 BREAKING: Jadon Sancho to Chelsea, here we go! Loan deal with obligation to buy clause agreed between the clubs.
Sancho already said yes as he wanted Chelsea move, deal now agreed between all parties.
Man United accepted the proposal and deal is now set to he signed. pic.twitter.com/D0f4SLK4lY
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 30, 2024
Mind boggling deal for Man U winger doesn’t add up
We have complained so much about these sporting directors and the club’s overall transfer strategy that we thought we were ready to give up. But this move is just so baffling that it’s taken things to a new level, if that’s possible.
Signing Sancho in return for shifting Sterling, as was originally mooted, was a bad idea in footballer terms, but perhaps made sense for the accountants (and even then, only because our budgets have been bungled so badly leading up to this summer).
Signing Sancho, with an obligation to buy him next summer, without even getting rid of Sterling as part of the bargain, is genuinely inexplicable. He’s a proven flop in the Premier League, and is being signed to play in a position where we have a wealth of options already.
Obviously, Jadon Sancho is a player with “huge potential” whom the sporting directors “greatly admire.”
Speaking of which … remember Samu Omorodion, the striker with the extremely modest goalscoring record they wanted to pay 40 million for? Well, he’s recently been signed by FC Porto … for 15 million.
All this while Ivan Toney’s gone to Saudi Arabia, Dominic Solanke to Tottenham and Jhon Duran is still going to be scoring goals for fun at Aston Villa.
I wonder what it takes to get fired as a sporting director?