UNITED SPORTING DIRECTOR DAN ASHWORTH REVEALS WHY TEAM SOLD JADON SANCHO TO RIVALS CHELSEA FOR £25 MILLION
Manchester United sporting director Dan Ashworth has revealed why the team parted ways with talented forward Jadon Sancho, who completed a surprise move to Chelsea on Deadline Day. Ashworth, appointed by United as the club’s new sporting director in July, was speaking in a Q & A alongside United Chief Executive Officer Omar Berrada and fielded questions from dedicated correspondents in the Old Trafford board room ahead of Liverpool’s visit on Sunday.
“I think with any player, whether it’s Jadon [Sancho], whether it’s Scott [McTominay] or whether it’s Aaron [Wan Bissaka],” said Ashworth. “If there’s a preference that they would like to move and go to a new club, and it’s right for them and it’s right for us, then you have to explore it.”
“We felt we had enough depth in that particular position to be able to cover it. We’ve got four really good wide players. Jadon was a fifth, and it just enabled us to make that decision that, if it was good for him and good for us, it was something we were willing to consider.”
Sancho’s exit from Manchester United leaves fellow English forward Marcus Rashford, Ivorian Amad Diallo, Alejandro Garnacho and Brazilian winger Antony as the team’s options on both wings. All four options have struggled in front of goal in the Premier League lately, scoring just 15 times in their last 72 Premier League starts under Erik ten Hag.
United parted ways with Sancho prior to the August 30th transfer deadline on Friday by sending him to Chelsea on a season-long loan. The loan, however, also comes with a £25 million obligation to buy, which triggers if Chelsea finishes within the top 14 in the Premier League this season.
Chelsea would thus acquire Sancho on a permanent basis in the summer of 2025 for a fixed fee of £20 million and up to £5 million in potential performance-based add-ons if they don’t finish in the final third of teams in the Premier League. The West London club have never finished lower than 14th in Premier League history, with their lowest finish coming in the 1993/94 season when they finished 14th with 51 points, six points above Tottenham Hotspur, who finished 15th.
An estranged player at the club following his public fallout with the manager in September of 2023, it always seemed like there was no repairing the relationship between Sancho and Erik ten Hag. Following the spat in early September, Sancho, then 23 years old, was exiled from the first-team, left out of the squad photo, and forced to train with United’s Under-18s for the next four months, as the standoff carried on. Sancho was also banned from the team’s cafeteria and first-team facilities in late September.
Already in ten Hag’s bad graces, Sancho then moved to Borussia Dortmund in January on a half-season long loan and played a key role in guiding the Black and Yellow to their first UEFA Champions League final in a decade.
Sancho’s standout game during his loan spell in Dortmund, came in the return leg of the Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain as the Camberwell-born forward delivered a Man of the Match performance in a game in which Dortmund came out 1-0 victors. The Englishman successfully completed 12 dribbles, the most by any player in the competition last season, as Dortmund dominated to win the tie 2-0 on aggregate.
With the conclusion of the 2023/24 season, Sancho’s future at United remained in limbo as the club chose to not only stick with manager Erik ten Hag following a two-week post-season review but also gave him a contract extension until summer of 2026. Sancho had two years left on his contract at Old Trafford heading into the season. With a resolution unlikely between player and manager, United quickly decided to explore other options for the young forward, both locally and abroad.
The team slowly integrated Sancho into the first team as they shopped him around during the summer as reports of a potential move to Italian giants Juventus began to surface. Sancho would go on to play a central role in all but one of United’s preseason games, only missing out on the club’s trip to Trondheim to play Swedish side Rosenborg BK after being allowed back into training that week.
After a relatively successful preseason, the 24-year-old wasn’t featured in any of United’s team squads in the club’s first two Premier League games, despite potential outgoings Scott McTominay and Christian Eriksen being in the squad for Erik ten Hag’s side against Fulham and at Brighton. United eventually parted ways with Scottish midfielder and academy graduate Scott McTominay on Friday in a £25.7 million deal with Napoli while reports around Europe suggesting that the club is currently looking for a home for Christian Eriksen.
“We have a squad and I hope we’ll have a squad with double positioning when we go into the season after the 1st of September,” said ten Hag when asked about Sancho’s availability for the Brighton game. “That means also, that you can’t select all the players for a game. But we need all the players throughout the season because this will be a season of survival of the fittest.”
“Of course we have to manage it but also the attitude of the players is very important and that sometimes they will be disappointed, but they have to deal with it… We need all the players in the squad and all the players highly motivated to contribute and that is also not an expectation, no. It is a demand from the club, from me as a manager for the squad. The squad, the team is always more important than every individual.”
Ten Hag told reporters at his press conference Friday morning ahead of the 11pm BST transfer deadline that he expected Sancho to stay and emphasized that he and the club were happy with him. The club would, however, finalize his move to Chelsea later that night.
“He is a player in our squad and we are happy with him,” said ten Hag. “And we need a good squad, we need depth in the squad. We have to play many games till January [with] the new format of Europe. We absolutely need options.”
Asked if he expected Sancho to still be at Manchester United after Friday’s transfer deadline, ten Hag said, “As I know, yeah.”
United sporting director Dan Ashworth was asked on Sunday if Sancho had no future at United during his time at the club, to which he replied: “Nothing to do with that. It was a decision that we made – if it’s right for Jadon and [if] it’s right for us to move on. He wanted to explore the opportunity at Chelsea, like Scott wanted to explore the opportunity at Napoli, like Aaron wanted to explore the opportunity at West Ham.”
“We’re not in a position where we’re kicking players out of the club,” Ashworth reiterated.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
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