I would disagree that Sancho is an appreciating asset if we pay €120m for him as it's unlikely that we would sell him for more than that in the future. This is the same kind of group think that made us sign Sanchez on a looney contract.
You are ignoring the new economic reality if you dont see the risk of paying €120m for a player with potentially no gate receipts for another full season. We are not the bottomless pits that PSG and City are and the club has its limits which is most likely why we haven't signed him by now. Dortmund are perfectly entitled to request whatever fee they want, that's their own risk. I just hope we are not stupid enough to pay €120m for him in current economic climate. I would have no issue with that fee if Covid hadn't happened but it has.
I don't think some of the posters in here are grasping what Sancho threatens to become if he maintains, or ups, his level of performance. He can't be a world star or move into the next tier without 'doing it' at a major or the very highest levels of the CL, both of which haven't been available to him yet, but when/if he does, he legitimately moves into a category where the most profitable players on the planet reside. This is actually to our benefit at the moment because, and fairly so, his output in Die Bundesliga is weighted against the kind of league it is and thus, there is room for reservation and skepticism with him that wouldn't exist with someone like Mbappe (due to his performances for Monaco in the Champions League and his World Cup). As I said in my first post, there being no Euros this summer has actually been beneficial to us as a buyer because if he had have taken that by storm, his value would have risen.
I'll reiterate that Sancho is an appreciating asset because the likelihood of him repeating his performance level and output is more of a given than not - otherwise he wouldn't be touted and regarded as he is in the first place. If you think the money being bandied about for him this summer is the ceiling of what he could go for if he continues his current trajectory, you're not paying attention to how some players go from stars to superstars to bona fide, indisputable top tier.
The way you're talking about the player, one would think he's fluking his run to being legitimately regarded as one of the best wing-forwards/attackers on the planet - someone we should simply walk away from, despite this bracket of player being so rare, even moreso to want to come to us over the usual suspects. Players with legitimate Ballon d'Or/WPOTY potential are few and far between in the Premier League, let alone at United - you can make a case for: De Bruyne, Pogba (arguable) and Mane once Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski are done contesting with a handful of others across Europe. Sancho is someone most believe would be a dead cert to be up there at that level categorisation soon enough, myself included. The notion of walking away from talent at that level is absurd, particularly when doing so from a position of weakness.
Your second bolded is a no-brainer for any club to try their luck first and foremost, but there comes a time where you get a measure of who you're dealing with and act accordingly - the suggestion we can strong-arm or act up when they are the ones with the appreciating asset who will, most likely, court more attention exponentially, is, well, putting it simply, makes no sense.
If you're not an actuary, what is the point in your third bolded? Do you think the major stars will be moving for a lot less than their market value due to Covid? Will the elite players stay where they are, or will their clubs sell them off for less than they should because of Covid? Do you think the money men on either side of the coin value these players less because of the crisis? That a Mbappe or Neymar are now worth £20m+ less? It's all well and good painting only doom regarding the pandemic, but there are pariahs all over the place making the deals of their lives because of it, and getting Sancho at less than what he would have been worth if the normal season had reached its organic end - with him potentially making a name for himself at the Euros - would make us one of them. Perhaps you see the if's and but's as wild conjecture, but to me, that takes a sizeable leap in logic to do as Sancho's trajectory has been steady and upward for a long time (literal years now) and has shown no sign of flattening out - if you read his thread itself, the fees being mentioned in there were already extraordinary
before he saw out the season just gone. It's strange to me that people sincerely believe you can get cut price deals on the very best players when their clubs are sitting on assets that it's in their own best interests to let grow and rise to the boil. Tell you what, go into an elite establishment, say you want to buy one of their best items, then tell them you need 20% off because Covid has made times hard. Where do you think that'll get you?
Given the thinness of our squad, there aren't many 9-figure players out there it would make sense for United to buy, but Sancho's performances, ability, potential, position, versatility, profile and age comfortably thrust him into that category. You say you have an issue with the fee being mentioned due to Covid seemingly unaware if the virus hadn't struck, we'd be talking about more for the player.
This is the knockdown fee!
I don't think United have any qualms with paying the 'bargain' price for the player, but structure and having to pay too much in one go, could understandably be the sticking point. I do believe the talks are over up front costs and incentives, myself. Dortmund want what they would have got in a non-Covid world and are trying to do so via 'achievables', would be my take on all this, most definitely not United looking at the 120m Euros and thinking it's too rich for their blood.