As Manchester slept on Friday night, alarms set for the morning scramble to claim tickets to a certain set of gigs at Heaton Park, Jadon Sancho was putting the final touches on his own homecoming of sorts.
Raised a Chelsea fan in London, albeit south-east of the river, by Sunday afternoon Sancho was on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, waving to the crowd in his fresh blue strip, then watching his new team-mates spurn a hatful of chances en route to a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.
Afterwards, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca talked up the qualities of his new signing, highlighting Sancho’s ability to break down teams setting up to frustrate from deep. He also, though, was keen to stress that that was not his side’s issue as they failed to put Palace away.
“When you face a team like today and you don’t create, you can say, ‘Okay, we need this player or that player, in this position’,” the Italian explained. “But with this kind of game, where even with a low block we had five, six or seven clear chances, there are not many more things you can do to win.”
In other words, what difference might Sancho, signed too late to feature, have made to Sunday’s result? According to his new boss, not much.
Hardly the most auspicious start then, and not the most convincing answer to the collective query as Chelsea spent the final hours of the window in pursuit of another young wide talent.
From afar, the obvious answer is that if Chelsea can rediscover the output that once made Sancho perhaps the most coveted player in Europe, then a year’s loan and eventual £20-25million fee will look a snip. Manchester United, after all, paid almost three times the higher of those figures to coax him from Borussia Dortmund in 2021.
Should the gamble fail, it would be another high-profile misstep on Chelsea’s part, but nothing like as costly as, say, those involved in signing Raheem Sterling or Mykhailo Mudryk, particularly since the permanent contract Sancho will agree next summer is expected to be heavily incentive-based and include a significant base salary cut.
For Sancho himself, the stakes are higher. His Dortmund peak feels longer than three years ago, even with flashes shown during his loan return last season, most notably against Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final of the Champions League.
It is three years, too, since he played for England, and his absence from the Euro 2024 squad was no surprise.
After falling out with Erik ten Hag this time last year, it became obvious Sancho was in need of a fresh start, the supposed thawing in their relationship this summer essentially managed to affect a sale.
Whether Chelsea is a club in any state to provide one is another question: if patience and stability are what Sancho needs, then in a league table ranking for both, the Blues would be relegation fodder.
Maresca, under pressure for his job as all Chelsea managers are from day one, cannot be expected to wait around for something that might be lost, least not with so many other (expensive) options at his disposal.
Sancho believes Maresca’s style of football suits his own and hopes a return to the capital will revive his career.
“I’m really excited to be here,” he said. “London is where I grew up and I’m happy to be back. They’re signing me for a reason and to contribute to the team, and I’m ready to do that. I enjoy his style of play. He loves the wingers to go one versus one. We play a lot of one-twos with the 10s and the striker combination plays. It’s very attractive and it’s a style that I play.”
Jadon Sancho career stats
2017-2021 Borussia Dortmund
Games: 137
Goals: 50
Assists: 64
2021-2023 Man United
Games: 82
Goals: 12
Assists: 6
2024 Borussia Dortmund (loan)
Games: 21
Goals: 3
Assists: 3
But the onus will be on Sancho to force his way into Maresca’s plans, a tall task, given both competition for places and the fact that he has not yet played a minute of league football this season.
Cole Palmer is undroppable at No10 and Noni Madueke has begun the season in superb form on the right, so much so that £54m signing Pedro Neto made his full league debut on Sunday off his unfavoured left.
In doing so, the Portuguese became the third Chelsea player to start in that position in as many league matches so far this season. Christopher Nkunku and Mudryk are the others, while Joao Felix was preferred to both when Neto was replaced midway through the second half.
What looks the most open route into the attack, then, is also the most congested, and the long road back for Sancho appears, as with most things at Chelsea, unlikely to be smooth.
