There was much excitement when Manchester United completed the signing of 'generational talent' Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund back in 2021.
The Red Devils parted with an eye-watering £73million to bring the England international home, getting the better of his former club Man City and Liverpool, who were very keen on signing Sancho, in the process.
But Sancho's time at United has been far from convincing with the forward seemingly out of sight and out of mind at Old Trafford. Erik ten Hag is under no real pressure to play the Englishman, especially as the Red Devils have started to turn a corner under him.
That said, if Ten Hag can get Sancho firing once more then he could become a real asset for United - and for years to come.
Back in 2020, Sancho was strongly linked with a move to Liverpool and former Reds star John Barnes was asked for his thoughts on the youngster leaving Dortmund for the Premier League title contenders.
Barnes claimed that the move to such a big club - with such huge expectations - may put back Sancho's development, and went as far as to suggest that it may be best if the forward put off a transfer for the time being.
Barnes told BonusCodeBets: "If Jadon Sancho is willing to come to Liverpool and not play every week and sit on the bench, then absolutely he should come to Liverpool.
"But I always tell young players to be careful and play at a high level for four-five years before moving to a bigger club.
"Salah and Mane have been around for four or five seasons now and have shown their quality and experience, whereas Sancho has been around for 18 months and needs to show that consistency over a three-year period before he costs £100million to a huge club.
"That doesn't happen in modern football anymore, nowadays, if you are young and have just one good season, someone is going to spend £80 million-plus on you.
"I would advise Jadon Sancho to develop more and show that level of consistency before he is going to be put under a lot of pressure by being a £100million player playing at one of the biggest clubs in the world."
Although Sancho didn't sign for Liverpool, he still overlooked Barnes' advice and completed a high-profile, big-money transfer to one of the biggest clubs in the world, where he wasn't guaranteed first-team football.
And it seems this decision has in some ways come back to bite him given that Sancho hasn't featured for United since October 22.
Ten Hag has suggested injuries have played a small part in this and the Dutchman remains hopeful that the youngster - who was left out of England's World Cup squad for Qatar - does have a future at Old Trafford.
Sancho is currently on an individual training programme to speed up his recovery and return to match fitness.
Ten Hag recently said of Sancho: "We didn't see him in the last games for United as he wasn't in the right fitness state and he is now on an individual programme. "We want him to finish that and hopefully see him back soon. We want to bring him back as quickly as possible but I can't give a prognosis of when that will be."
