How Sancho's dream Man Utd move ended as a nightmare

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Jadon Sancho made his 29th Aston Villa appearance in the Europa League win at Lille By Simon Stone Manchester United reporter Published 15 March 2026 Updated 14 minutes ago It ended with a one-line statement as Manchester United also said goodbye to Casemiro and Tyrell Malacia. "We would like to thank Casemiro, Tyrell and Jadon for their contributions to Manchester United and wish them the very best of luck for the future." No mention that 12 months after Chelsea had paid a £5m penalty clause rather than turn his loan into an agreed permanent transfer, United were now opting not to activate an extra year's option on Jadon Sancho. His time at Old Trafford will chiefly be remembered for an amazing row with Erik ten Hag and achieving the remarkable feat of playing in the final of all three European club competitions across the space of three seasons, while on loan at three different clubs – Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea and Aston Villa . A low-key end to a desperately disappointing episode – for club and player. It wasn't supposed to be like that. "A dream come true" was how Sancho described his £73m move from Borussia Dortmund in July 2021. The reality has turned out to be anything but. The last time Sancho played at Old Trafford was on 26 August 2023, when he came on as a second-half substitute in a comeback victory against Nottingham Forest . In total, he made 30 Premier League appearances for the club. He completed the full 90 minutes on only 10 occasions. Aside from one seven-minute substitute appearance in the 2024 Community Shield, Sancho spent the last two and-a-half years of his time at United playing elsewhere. No wonder minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was aghast to learn how much of Sancho's fee United still had to pay, as he told BBC Sport in March 2025: "Sancho now plays for Chelsea and we pay half his wages. We're paying £17m to buy him in the summer." Looking back, there are four key moments in Sancho's United story. The missed year Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made Sancho a key transfer target in the summer of 2020. Dortmund set a deadline of 10 August to agree a deal. United felt the German giants were posturing and would let Sancho leave regardless. They were wrong. Despite United increasing their bid, Sancho remained at Dortmund. The following campaign turned out to be one of the most productive seasons of his career - 16 goals and 20 assists in 38 matches in all competitions. Sancho scored two and created one for Erling Haaland in a 4-1 German Cup final victory against RB Leipzig. Sancho's performances earned selection for England's European Championship squad. At the age of 21, only Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham were younger. The tournament ended badly. Sancho missed in the penalty shootout as England lost to Italy in the final, and, along with Saka and Marcus Rashford, was the victim of racist abuse, which led to one man being sent to prison. Sancho never came close to that f