sport news Jadon Sancho is not 'reborn' at Borussia Dortmund. CRAIG HOPE on the Man United ... trends now
It irritated those here in Dortmund and even beyond when Jadon Sancho flopped at Manchester United. Born in London, perhaps, but they see him as a Bundesliga export.
When goals and assists that have flowed so easily in Germany suddenly dry up in the Premier League - see Timo Werner, also - it gives reason for the ‘Farmer’s League’ doubters to plough their contempt. The Bundesliga, for the record, have two teams in the last five of the Champions League, while England have none.
Sancho’s recovery, then, is about him, not the country in which he feels so at home. And that is why he is here, back at Borussia Dortmund, the club who turned him into that £73million export in the first place.
It would be easy to declare that the 24-year-old is reborn, given he is playing in the last four of the world’s premier club competition just four months after returning on loan. But that would not be accurate. Not yet, at least.
The Sancho who was shipped back from United arrived wearing a ‘damaged goods’ tag. He would not be the only young man to be broken by a move to Old Trafford, but the responsibility for performance rests first with the player, not the club. And that is the concern with Sancho, does he have the desire to make the absolute best of the talent that burned so brightly during his first spell at Dortmund?
Jadon Sancho is an improved player at Dortmund - but it would not be accurate to say he is a man reborn
Sancho arrived back at the club as 'damaged goods' and he doesn't look like the same player who left for Old Trafford in 2021
Sancho has become a safe model who looks shorn of expression, with far less of his signature darings darts down the wing
Watch him now and he is not the same player. Never mind the numbers - three goals and two assists in 16 games - your eyes tell you that much. Here is a simple observation, but he seldom runs very fast anymore.
There is something of Jack Grealish Version 2.0 about Sancho now, the safe model who looks shorn of expression. Gone are the dribbles, those daring darts down the wing or infield, the unpredictability that rendered the opposition helpless. Back then, the end product was predictable. His last season at Dortmund brought 36 goal
