Man Utd completing Jadon Sancho transfer for £100m could totally strip them of cash to spend on other signings
IT’S hard to name a single club in world football that wouldn’t be better for having Jadon Sancho on the books.
And if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gets his wish, Manchester United will land the most-wanted young man on the planet.
There is no doubting Sancho’s ability. There is no doubt he has the talent to become one of the great modern-day English players.
But make no mistake, blowing the entire transfer kitty on one forward and not injecting fresh blood into midfield could mean trouble ahead.
Right now, Project Paul Pogba is ticking along very smoothly . . . yet if there are no new faces alongside him in the engine room, that could all change.
There is no doubt Sancho, 20, would cut it at United.
This kid is so talented, he will deliver wherever he ends up. He’ll thrill the fans and score important goals for years.
United would be putting all their eggs in one basket. And they really do need more than a solitary signing.
Crucially, his arrival would let young Mason Greenwood, 18, develop at his own pace, free of expectation to deliver week-in, week-out.
But for all the talent, Sancho would be a signing that came with very definite risks, because of the £110million fee Borussia Dortmund are demanding.
The murmurs from inside Old Trafford are that if United get him, he would be the only arrival.
The kitty would be blown on one man.
It’s why they are desperate to get the price down — but the Germans aren’t showing signs of budging.
Sancho may well turn out to be worth the money, his potential certainly suggests as much. That’s not the issue.
What is, is the fact United would be putting all their eggs in one basket — there would be no other new faces.
And they really do need more than a solitary signing.
A year ago, Bayer Leverkusen youngster Kai Havertz, 21, topped their wanted list — yet he now looks likely to join Chelsea if he does swap Germany for England.
Havertz, just nine months older than Sancho, is Leverkusen skipper and can play as a midfielder or striker.
He’s as intelligent a player as you’ll find at that age. A lion in a cub’s body. And a player who could still leave enough money to allow Solskjaer to make another signing.
Yet for some reason their interest in Havertz dipped, with all efforts channelled into getting Sancho.
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And the peril of that plan is that, if it comes off, Pogba would then be the headline act — with United depending on him to have a consistent, trouble-free season.
Hardly something which has become the Frenchman’s trademark over the past couple of seasons.
Not with Mino Raiola whispering in his ear.
Raiola wouldn’t need telling his man was a key figure once more — and the one thing you don’t want is Pogba’s agent getting busy like last year.
United need a midfielder AND a striker at least. But blowing the budget on an attacker, however good, means they would have to offload to bring in anyone else.
Raiola will already be well aware of that.
You wouldn’t have to wait long before we were hearing again about how it could be time for his man Pogba to move on.
Let’s face it, he has never needed much prompting in the past.
Fantastic if Pogba was a happy camper, pulling strings with Fernandes and no choppy waters. But with Raiola in the background, you fear it won’t be too long before you head for a rock.
Whenever Raiola knows his man holds the aces, trouble doesn’t tend to be too far away.
We saw that when Pogba was the man at Old Trafford — and his agent was forever agitating.
He did so much of it last year that if he stayed quiet for a week, you were awaiting news of a ransom note.
Look, it would be great to think it would all go smoothly.
Fantastic if Pogba was a happy camper, sharing the string-pulling with Bruno Fernandes and there were no choppy waters.
And yes, the underlying fears may prove to be nothing more than conspiratorial ones which come to nothing.
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But with Raiola in the background, you always fear it won’t be too long before you’re heading for the rocks.
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So if next season does indeed kick off with Sancho in that famous No 7 shirt, let’s hope the gamble pays off.
The stakes are certainly high enough.