[Born2Lose]

Rapidly becoming the worst big money signing in the club's recent history.

Wish Garnacho had been available tonight.

 

[RedDevilQuebecois]

Rapidly becoming the worst big money signing in the club's recent history.

Wish Garnacho had been available tonight.

Even without Garnacho in the squad, Pellistri would have tried to be more visible than the ghost that Sancho is.

 

[hobbers]

Going to be one the slowest moving trainwreck signings in our history.

Cant play football at this level but the chance of getting rid in the next 2+ seasons is virtually nil. Counts as home grown so the club will desperately "protect his value" and no one wants a total failure on 300k a week.

The only thing he does that's potentially positive is put some perspective on Antony. He's been so awful he might just buy Antony a bit more time to come good.

 

[Hawks2008]

Another of Ole's brilliant deals... absolute ghost of a player

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Get rid. Please. Before his value vanishes completely.

Unfortunately, having to write-down his book value would make our FFP constraints this summer even worse. So I think if he leaves, it'll be on loan.

 

[Peelhead]

Didn't notice him come on, forgot he was playing, don't remember actually even looking at the ball - let alone touching it.

Has a great career ahead of him in the SAS. He's great at being invisible.

I think it's fair to say the entire club has had some poor management over the last 10/12 years but that would be a nightmare if we messed some sub situation up because nobody realised he was already playing!

Things have got to a pretty bad level when you're just invisible.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Rapidly becoming the worst big money signing in the club's recent history.

Wish Garnacho had been available tonight.

Considering United have only ever signed 3 players in their history with a more expensive transfer fee than Sancho, it's understandable that there's a target on his back but a bit of perspective would be nice. Other teams have spent silly money on players who have performed worse. It's almost as if Chelsea didn't spend 97m on a 28 year old Lukaku, only send him out on loan a year later after he flattered to deceive.

I can't see Sancho living up to his price tag (I hope I'm wrong) however the hyperbole around him this season seems a bit OTT.

 

[Abraxas]

Considering United have only ever signed 3 players in their history with a more expensive transfer fee than Sancho, it's understandable that there's a target on his back but a bit of perspective would be nice. Other teams have spent silly money on players who have performed worse. It's almost as if Chelsea didn't spend 97m on a 28 year old Lukaku, only send him out on loan a year later after he flattered to deceive.

I can't see Sancho living up to his price tag (I hope I'm wrong) however the hyperbole around him this season seems a bit OTT.

To be honest I don't think what he said was a big claim and I think the fact Chelsea spunked money on Lukaku is largely irrelevant. The idea he's one of our worst big money signings in recent history is clear as day at the moment.

You said it yourself, he's the fourth most expensive signing in our history. "Recent history"is a bit ambiguous but wherever you want to cut that off it doesn't really matter, he's still played poorly, and the closer to the present we consider the more it is evident that Sancho is one of our worst signings among the big ones we've made. He's also been here for his second season so he is not without opportunities.

So there doesn't really seem to be any hyperbole, it's more like a statement of affairs as they stand. I think he might have one more season to show something.

 

[Kaos]

We've pissed almost £180million up on the wall for Sancho and Maguire. Think about that for a minute.

 

[Malone_Post]

We've pissed almost £180million up on the wall for Sancho and Maguire. Think about that for a minute.

£260 million when you factor in Antony too.

Its just so utterly depressing. It’s actually hard to fathom just how badly this club is run.

 

[Rampant Red Rodriguez]

Look guys, the cost of the lad's transfer is minimally relevant to the guy on the pitch. He's not a fast enough runner for this league, nor are the other parts of his game at the required standard for us. I don't want to wait another 5 years for him to leave, so send him to West Ham and px him for Declan Rice. I'm quite unhappy with holding on to mediocre personnel until the point of them just stealing a living from the club after doing feck all for 5 years or more and becoming more utterly useless.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

To be honest I don't think what he said was a big claim and I think the fact Chelsea spunked money on Lukaku is largely irrelevant. The idea he's one of our worst big money signings in recent history is clear as day at the moment.

You said it yourself, he's the fourth most expensive signing in our history. "Recent history"is a bit ambiguous but wherever you want to cut that off it doesn't really matter, he's still played poorly, and the closer to the present we consider the more it is evident that Sancho is one of our worst signings among the big ones we've made. He's also been here for his second season so he is not without opportunities.

So there doesn't really seem to be any hyperbole, it's more like a statement of affairs as they stand. I think he might have one more season to show something.

Of course it's not big a claim to say so far he's not been worth the expensive fee we've paid for him, but you've got to factor in the circumstances. We signed him when he was 21, his first 'bedding in' season was during the Rangnick era which was the worst United season in PL history and everyone underperformed, a chunk of his second season he was unavailable due to non-footballing reasons, so it would currently be unfair to say he's been a massive flop when there are other PL players who have signed for similarly huge fee. Even if we sell him in the summer, he still has resale value. This doesn't feel like anywhere close to the Alexis Sanchez situation for example.

 

[Abraxas]

Of course it's not big a claim to say so far he's not been worth the expensive fee we've paid for him, but you've got to factor in the circumstances. We signed him when he was 21, his first 'bedding in' season was during the Rangnick era which was the worst United season in PL history and everyone underperformed, a chunk of his second season he was unavailable due to non-footballing reasons, so it would currently be unfair to say he's been a massive flop when there are other PL players who have signed for similarly huge fee. Even if we sell him in the summer, he still has resale value. This doesn't feel like anywhere close to the Alexis Sanchez situation for example.

I don't really understand the relevance of the point about other PL flops. I don't see how it absolves us of a bad deal to point and laugh at someone else's bad deal. A spade is still a spade at the end of it all. Us and Chelsea both have spades with mouldy wood and broken handles but somehow it's still not helping us.

You might have a point about the circumstances, even if I think it might be a little on the optimistic side. Many did write off last season to an extent, I recall glowing observations of him during preseason that explained how we were too quick last season. But when the second season repeats the first it starts to look like a pattern that is harder to explain away, and that is an issue. The other point about not available due to non-footballing reasons, that's one way of saying it, I'd say not available due to Sancho reasons. We don't really know the full context, only that the manager had to take an unusual step and it may be that whatever those reasons are, if they're not solved then they don't help him to become a top player for us.

Regarding resale value, well, I firstly hope he comes good, but if not I hope you're right because we may need to rely on that. I'm not sure I share the same optimism due to his gargantuan wages. That is going to impact the economics of any deal or loan.

 

[hobbers]

you've got to factor in the circumstances. We signed him when he was 21, his first 'bedding in' season was during the Rangnick era which was the worst United season in PL history and everyone underperformed, a chunk of his second season he was unavailable due to non-footballing reasons, so it would currently be unfair to say he's been a massive flop when there are other PL players who have signed for similarly huge fee. Even if we sell him in the summer, he still has resale value. This doesn't feel like anywhere close to the Alexis Sanchez situation for example.

Nope, no valid excuses here for how rank he's been.

He has been a huge flop, there's no mitigation. Biggest flop we've ever signed and one of the biggest in the history of the Prem. The only way to rescue that status would be if we could get him off the books as quickly as Di Maria and for a decent resale value. Which categorically will not happen because of his wages, his homegrown status and how shockingly bad he's been

Sanchez might have been on 100k+ a week more than Sancho but we didn't spunk £73m on him.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

I don't really understand the relevance of the point about other PL flops. I don't see how it absolves us of a bad deal to point and laugh at someone else's bad deal. A spade is still a spade at the end of it all. Us and Chelsea both have spades with mouldy wood and broken handles but somehow it's still not helping us.

Context is important. We signed Andy Cole for 7m in 1995 which sounds like good value for money, but when you factor in that Liverpool spent 8.5m on Stan Collymore in the same year, then it contextualises how much of a bargain Andy Cole really was compared to other transfer fees at the time. I'm obviously not saying Sancho was a bargain, but his fee wasn't outrageously bad value for money when compared with signings made by other PL clubs around the same time.

You might have a point about the circumstances, even if I think it might be a little on the optimistic side. Many did write off last season to an extent, I recall glowing observations of him during preseason that explained how we were too quick last season.

Not by me. I have never taken pre-seaaon performances seriously. Those games are mainly used for match fitness.

The other point about not available due to non-footballing reasons, that's one way of saying it, I'd say not available due to Sancho reasons. We don't really know the full context, only that the manager had to take an unusual step and it may be that whatever those reasons are, if they're not solved then they don't help him to become a top player for us.

As we don't know the full story behind why he was unavailable, maybe we should avoid attributing any blame to Sancho until the full facts are made public. As far as I'm concerned, Sancho is currently blameless for being unavailable for selection during that period. Whenever athletes are prone to picking up physical injuries I wouldn't say they're blameless, however when their manager says they're unavailable due to a mental issue then I'm more sympathetic as it's not something they have control over.

 

[ZainCRse7en]

Dont wish to mention how much we paid for him or the wages he is on. But as a professional footballer, the way he pulls out of every 50-50 is embarrassing. Its like he is playing to avoid an injury? Put your body on the line and play for the badge on your shirt ffs. No intensity whatsoever. Just a timid, timid footballer.

 

[DRJosh]

We've garnered a good reputation for removing the 'hype' for hyped up players.

 

[croadyman]

Just hasn't worked out which is sad

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Nope, no valid excuses here for how rank he's been.

He has been a huge flop, there's no mitigation. Biggest flop we've ever signed and one of the biggest in the history of the Prem. The only way to rescue that status would be if we could get him off the books as quickly as Di Maria and for a decent resale value. Which categorically will not happen because of his wages, his homegrown status and how shockingly bad he's been

Sanchez might have been on 100k+ a week more than Sancho but we didn't spunk £73m on him.

Nicolas Pepe? Andy Carroll? Lukaku at Chelsea? Not only were they massive flops, but they underperformed so badly that their resale value was virtually non-existent 12 months after signing them. Yes, Sancho is on high wages but when you factor in his age and his ability, we wouldn't struggle to get a 30m+ fee if we sold him in the summer. Not saying that's good transfer business however let's not pretend he's one of the biggest flops in PL history.

 

[NICanRed]

A reminder again that the Caf was rabid 5 years ago - insisting that we must buy Sancho and that that would be the answer to all our problems - no expense to be spared. Be careful what you ask for! I doubt that the club was really swayed by the writings on here but I wonder how many of those writers would have the guts to come forward now and admit that they were wrong!

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

I’m fed up with him. Came in against a tiring Brighton and did feck all. Him, Martial, Maguire, Fred - tired of making excuses for these players. Well all of them and bring in more players like Licha.

 

[Member 105568]

Another of Ole's brilliant deals... absolute ghost of a player

I don’t think Ole had the faintest clue what he was buying either. Kept talking about wanting Sancho to go on the outside and take his man on.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

A reminder again that the Caf was rabid 5 years ago - insisting that we must buy Sancho and that that would be the answer to all our problems - no expense to be spared. Be careful what you ask for! I doubt that the club was really swayed by the writings on here but I wonder how many of those writers would have the guts to come forward now and admit that they were wrong!

I hardly watched any Bundesliga football so I didn't have much of an opinion on Sancho before he joined United, nor did I view the caf much back then either, but I'd imagine the posters were understandly excited by his G/A numbers. If you'd advise against anyone on here insisting on signing exciting young prospects, then we may as well close the threads for Osimhen, Hojlund and multiple other up-and-coming talents. While it's fair to say United's recruitment over the past decade has been poor, I think the "be careful what you wish for" sentiment is slightly patronising towards a fanbase of United's size who merely want our owners to show the slightest indication that they care about United being successful on the pitch. I'd assume the 2020 summer transfer window where we didn't sign Sancho (or any other players to improve our starting 11) caused an understandable degree of frustration amongst many people on here. Nothing wrong with that if you ask me.

 

[The United]

I think Sancho would be best when we are trying to break through a defense in their own box. Putting him in games like this one actually did not help him at all. He is not exactly a good player for counter-attacking, chasing people around, or defending, basically any activity that requires intensive work.

 

[Born2Lose]

Even without Garnacho in the squad, Pellistri would have tried to be more visible than the ghost that Sancho is.

Completely agree, didn't know much about EtH before he turned up but I hoped he'd be a manager who'd pick players on merit rather than reputation.

 

[crossy1686]

Sancho, Maguire, Pogba, Lukaku.

I’m willing to bet the person who identified and sanctioned these transfers still has a job at the club and probably a pay rise.

 

[Xaviboy]

Dortmund must be laughing still at the receipt.

We can all do what he does in football and that's dribble up close to a defender, few twist and turns with the ball and end up back where you started and relise I can't beat the defender here cuz I've no pace, so then turn back and pass it backwards or sideways.

He gets 300k a week for it. Ffs.

 

[The Purley King]

Sancho costs us £18m a year in wages alone. I think he has 3 years left?
No way is he going to waive £54m (and neither should he).
He definitely needs to leave though, which will probably mean us knocking ~£27m off any asking price so the wages the purchasing team will pay will be a more reasonable? £175k pw.

 

[Orion.]

We've pissed almost £180million up on the wall for Sancho and Maguire. Think about that for a minute.

plus Antony.

 

[crossy1686]

If we don't sell him this summer and he has another season like this one we're stuck with him for the length of his contract.

 

[RedRonaldo]

I don't think we could sell him to any club, because of his wage, and we are unlikely to sell him for huge loss after just 2 seasons.

Probably a loan move or something, might not be a very bad idea.

 

[peridigm]

Should be called Snacho because he's stealing a living as a footballer.

 

[redzombie]

We've pissed almost £180million up on the wall for Sancho and Maguire. Think about that for a minute.

there was a period (albeit short) where Maguire was reasonably decent, unfortunately Sancho can only aspire to that level of ordinary, which is a hell of an achievement.

 

[Abraxas]

Context is important. We signed Andy Cole for 7m in 1995 which sounds like good value for money, but when you factor in that Liverpool spent 8.5m on Stan Collymore in the same year, then it contextualises how much of a bargain Andy Cole really was compared to other transfer fees at the time. I'm obviously not saying Sancho was a bargain, but his fee wasn't outrageously bad value for money when compared with signings made by other PL clubs around the same time.


Not by me. I have never taken pre-seaaon performances seriously. Those games are mainly used for match fitness.


As we don't know the full story behind why he was unavailable, maybe we should avoid attributing any blame to Sancho until the full facts are made public. As far as I'm concerned, Sancho is currently blameless for being unavailable for selection during that period. Whenever athletes are prone to picking up physical injuries I wouldn't say they're blameless, however when their manager says they're unavailable due to a mental issue then I'm more sympathetic as it's not something they have control over.

Sure, but we can't really look at Sancho's signing, transfer fee, performances within a vacuum and say he doesn't look too bad compared to X. That would make sense when there was less data available and you're extrapolating the value of players based on lots of variables. We have coming up to 2 seasons worth of data, so that is going to supercede any notion around whether the value is good, bad or indifferent purely based on a fee and his age/profile compared to other players at other clubs etc. It looks bad value because he has been a poor contributor, and it'd look good value if he delivered on his supposed talent. Unfortunately I can't really see any way to repackage what he has offered as anything close to value for the club, no matter what the context is or who he is compared to. He simply doesn't perform, to the extent that even if we took the fee out of it, what he has delivered would still be totally inadequate.

I'm not "blaming" Sancho for his absence, it's not a blame game. I'm just saying that period existed, and they are for reasons pertaining to him as an individual and the manager thought they were such that he had to train alone under supervision. Whatever those reasons are, they either get resolved to an extent that they are no longer distracting from a sole focus on performing, or they don't - and ultimately we don't really have any clear idea which is true because he isn't playing well. We don't know if he isn't playing well because he isn't good enough or is unsuitable, or because issues exist, or for a combination of those reasons. But I'm saying it's not really a case of "writing off" this period, because from the POV of the football club the only thing that matters is performance. We can offer support and assistance, it's in our interest to do that and I hope that's an ongoing situation, but in the final analysis it won't matter whether its Sancho's "fault" or its just an unfortunate situation if it leads to absence or non performance. Ultimately this is Man Utd, the highest level of the game and we need to deliver.

 

[Lay]

I don't think we could sell him to any club, because of his wage, and we are unlikely to sell him for huge loss after just 2 seasons.

Probably a loan move or something, might not be a very bad idea.

Although a loan move would be good, I can’t see the club loaning out a player they’ve spent this much money on. He’ll probably just be phased out before a return to Dortmund for about £20m at this rate

 

[Peelhead]

I don't really understand the relevance of the point about other PL flops. I don't see how it absolves us of a bad deal to point and laugh at someone else's bad deal. A spade is still a spade at the end of it all. Us and Chelsea both have spades with mouldy wood and broken handles but somehow it's still not helping us.

You might have a point about the circumstances, even if I think it might be a little on the optimistic side. Many did write off last season to an extent, I recall glowing observations of him during preseason that explained how we were too quick last season. But when the second season repeats the first it starts to look like a pattern that is harder to explain away, and that is an issue. The other point about not available due to non-footballing reasons, that's one way of saying it, I'd say not available due to Sancho reasons. We don't really know the full context, only that the manager had to take an unusual step and it may be that whatever those reasons are, if they're not solved then they don't help him to become a top player for us.

Regarding resale value, well, I firstly hope he comes good, but if not I hope you're right because we may need to rely on that. I'm not sure I share the same optimism due to his gargantuan wages. That is going to impact the economics of any deal or loan.

You're right I think and I think it's 'worse' in a football capacity than the Alex is situation. With him it did seem much more apparent that his engine had too many miles on the clock.

Most people, not just football fans dislike uncertainty and I think this is what is polarising the fan base.

If he had a glaring weakness like he could only cross the ball on one foot or whatever, people would accept that.
It's all the mystery that's becoming self-fulfilling.

Going to be very difficult to sell or even loan maybe if that's the case so we'd better be prepared to stick with him no matter imo.

 

[Superunknown]

Think it's quite funny that he came on in the 74-ish minute, played for about 20 minutes, and there are no comments in here about it. Says it all. Invisible.

 

[Malone_Post]

Think it's quite funny that he came on in the 74-ish minute, played for about 20 minutes, and there are no comments in here about it. Says it all. Invisible.

Sums him up as a player. A complete ghost.

 

[GledTheRed]

All in a days work (350k)

 

[redNATION]

Think it's quite funny that he came on in the 74-ish minute, played for about 20 minutes, and there are no comments in here about it. Says it all. Invisible.

Gotten to a point where everyone knows what to expect, which is nothing at all.