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Chelsea will pay a significant portion of Jadon Sancho’s wage packet at Old Trafford during his loan spell in London.
In the dying hours of the summer transfer window, United reached a last-minute agreement with their Premier League rival to sell Sancho on Friday night.
The 24-year-old winger will join Chelsea on an initial loan deal before an obligation clause to buy is activated next summer. The price involved in this obligation is variable, depending on where the Blues finish in the Premier League this season. It ranges between £20-25 million.
Furthermore, Chelsea “won’t pay a loan fee for Sancho”, Chris Wheeler (Daily Mail) reveals, but will cover a “large majority of his £250,000-a-week wages.”
It’s a damning indictment on the 24-year-old’s time at Old Trafford that this deal is still considered a ‘win’ by United.
Sancho has struggled immensely since the Red Devils paid Borussia Dortmund £73 million for his services in 2021. These struggles reached a painful apex last September when the winger had a falling out with manager Erik ten Hag over the Dutchman’s decision to omit him from the match-day squad for a trip to the Emirates.
United would lose 3-1 to Arsenal and Sancho publicly disputed his manager’s explanation for his absence in the aftermath of the game.
As a result, the winger was banished from the first-team and told an apology to Ten Hag was the only route back into the fold under the Dutchman at Old Trafford. Sancho refused to do so.
The winger eventually re-joined Dortmund on loan in January and enjoyed a reasonable return to life in Germany, helping Die Schwarzgelben to the Champions League final. Dortmund were unwilling to pay the requisite money to make his loan deal a permanent one, however.
Sancho returned to Old Trafford following reconciliatory talks with Ten Hag, mediated by the club’s executives, and was reinstalled in the first-team. Yet this never felt like a genuine move, but rather one designed to help maintain the 24-year-old’s value in the transfer market.
There was little interest in Sancho this summer, outside of loan deals with unfavourable terms for United. And it wasn’t until Chelsea emerged as a late contender for the winger that Old Trafford officials felt that his exit could be agreed.
It speaks to these difficulties in finding a suitable buyer for Sancho that the club have agreed to a £50 million loss on a player yet to enter his prime. But it remains a positive move for United.
The fact that Chelsea are paying the majority of Sancho’s wage packet is a financial boost at Old Trafford. If the London club have agreed, for example, to pay 80% of his £250,000-a-week salary, this accounts for a saving of over £10 million annually.
And, when he is eventually sold next summer, the price – even if it’s as low as £20 million – will still count positively from a financial fair play perspective as the winger’s amortised cost from his original £73 million purchase will only have £14.6 million remaining on it.
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2024-08-31 16:00:07
