Man Utd's Harry Kane transfer mistake - and the role Jadon Sancho signing played
Back in 2021, Manchester United had a decision to make over whether they would pursue a transfer for Jadon Sancho or Harry Kane.
Both players were attracting attention from several clubs across the continent and neither of them were going to come cheap, so what was then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Red Devils side had to pick one and streamline their efforts. As history shows, they opted to land Sancho's signature that summer, rather than Kane's.
It has since been proved the wrong call. Kane remained at Tottenham for a further two years, where he continued to excel and fire goals in for fun, before eventually joining German giants Bayern Munich. In his debut season in the Bundesliga, the England captain is sitting on 21 goals in 15 league games.
Meanwhile, in that same time frame, Sancho arrived at Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of £73million. He has managed just nine league goals in that time, six less than Kane's tally for this season alone, six league assists and then suffered a complete breakdown in his relationship with current boss Erik ten Hag.
The United manager accused him of poor effort levels in training last September, which prompted Sancho to hit back on social media and imply that Ten Hag was lying, as the winger encouraged fans to avoid believing everything that they read.
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And with that, the pair were no longer on speaking terms. Keen to flex his authority, Ten Hag exiled Sancho from the first-team fold, forcing him to both train and socialise away from his teammates while at the club's Carrington training complex.
That was until earlier this week when Sancho returned to Borussia Dortmund on loan for the remainder of the current campaign. The England international was all smiles while pictured back in the famous yellow and black.
HAVE YOUR SAY!Should United have signed Kane instead of Sancho in 2021? Comment below
Jadon Sancho has rejoined Borussia Dortmund on loan from Manchester United (Hendrik Deckers/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)The loan switch marks a stunning transfer failure from United's perspective, given they gave the Bundesliga club £73m for Sancho only to see him return to Dortmund less than three years later. Former Red Devil Louis Saha has had his say on the situation.
Speaking to Paddy Power, the Frenchman explained: "Jadon Sancho is one of Manchester United's biggest transfer failures – you can’t have that type of quality sidelined because of his mindset.
"You can’t leave him out for six months because of that. The only thing that should stop you is injuries. We know that he is good enough, which is why it doesn’t sit right.
"You can’t be putting yourself in that situation and thinking that you are bigger than the manager. Whatever happens, I don’t back Sancho – which is hard for me as a supporter of United. It’s just horrendous." How differently things could have been and how much money United could have saved if they had opted to pursue Kane instead.
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