As expected, Chelsea fans are now in the same boat Manchester United supporters found themselves in by pulling their hair out over Jadon Sancho.
The Stamford Bridge outfit fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday, with Sancho featuring from the off for the 16th time in the Premier League since his loan began.
He, perhaps unsurprisingly, failed to add to his account in the 76 minutes he played, and has now gone nine matches without registering a top-flight goal contribution – most recently doing so with an assist against Crystal Palace on January 4.
Alas, it’s safe to say that the winger has nowhere near the desired impact Enzo Maresca would’ve hoped when welcoming him from United in the summer, but if Chelsea finishes above 14th place in the table come May, they’ll be expected to fork out £25 million to have Sancho swap from red to blue permanently – unless they find a way to bypass the obligation cause.
They’ve been encouraged to do so by one former player, too. William Gallas said of Sancho after Sunday’s loss to the Gunners: “That player has talent. He’s a talented player, everybody knows this, but we don’t know why he can’t perform and can’t show what he can do.
“At Dortmund, he was magnificent. At Manchester United, it didn’t work well for him. He came to Chelsea and at the beginning, we sat Sancho’s from Dortmund, but then he disappeared.
“I don’t know what the problem is, but at the moment he can’t stay at Chelsea because he has to do more.
“When you play in the Premier League you have to play every game at the highest level. It’s not easy, but you can’t just play well for a few games and then chill out. He didn’t challenge his left-back opponent. He always gets the ball, does some skills, and then passes the ball back. We want to see more, especially when you are the winger.”
“So, technically, Sancho could return to United in the summer but that was not the aim of any party when they embarked upon this deal. Let’s see if that remains the case or changes, which would obviously be a big story,” said ever-reliable transfer expert David Ornstein.
