Some 966 days later, it resumed as if time had simply been paused. OK, he was clad in the No 10 shirt this time rather than the No 7 but in most other senses, it was as if Jadon Sancho had never been away.
Whether that is positive or negative is not an easy question to answer. The immediate fillip that the on-loan Manchester United winger has given his old team is not in question. This is, however, the most typical of January transfers. Three desperate parties coming together to hammer out the best, least-worst solution to their very immediate problems. The opening stanza of the renewed player-club relationship underlined exactly why they’ve come together and why, at this point in time, they need each other like they do.
It would take a hard heart not to be pleased for Sancho. Entering the field as substitute at the same time as his friend Marco Reus in Saturday’s trip to Darmstadt, it took him just over 20 minutes to make his statistical weight felt. With BVB a goal to the good but labouring, he drifted out to the right, darted on to Donyell Malen’s cunning ball inside the full-back and put the perfect cross in front of Reus for the veteran to walk in the second.
That Sancho was able to provide such instant satisfaction, decisive and unfussy, was a relief. Edin Terzić, who was a big ally of Sancho in his first spell in charge (in which they won a DfB Pokal together, with the England winger and Erling Haaland taking Leipzig to pieces in the Berlin final in 2021), knows him well and spoke at length before the match about how he expected it would take “two to three weeks” to get the new (old) man up to speed. Still, unimpressed by his team’s performance here, he sent Sancho on 10 minutes into the second half. It reflected how BVB’s feelings about a potential return have evolved in recent weeks. In autumn, they had politely declined inquiries when asked whether they might be willing to welcome him back to relaunch his career.
That, however, was before BVB crawled to one win in seven Bundesliga games to finish 2023 six points adrift of the Champions League, out of the title race and leaving Terzić’s future in question. In a season largely defined by Harry Kane’s superhuman ability to paper over some of his team’s unsightly faultlines, Dortmund were now hoping for a bit of the same, as quickly as possible. Indifference to an idea had become impatience to see its realisation in recent days.
While United and BVB spent days picking over the last details of the temporary detail – salary splits and bonuses, an exercise in face-saving optics on the English giants’ side as much as it was in financial gains – the latter party betrayed a little frustration. They had hoped to get this done for Sancho to join them at their traditional Marbella training camp, and there was certainly disappointment among the coaching staff when it became clear that the player wouldn’t be cleared in time to do so.
“Where have you been?” called a smiling Terzić to Sancho from a first-floor window at the club’s Brackel training centre on Thursday as the player arrived for training, in a wry nod. “You don’t like training camps?” There was a serious point behind the bonhomie. Marbella was where Terzić turned a tanking season almost into a title-winning one this time last year, using the time away to connect with his senior players and motivate them to help him raise standards.
If Marbella was again going to be a turning point this year, then there were no instant results. This was a stodgy, work-in-progress Dortmund, in which individual quality made the difference at moments in a game which, from the visitors’ perspective, didn’t have enough of it between the two teams. With only Julian Brandt’s fine strike separating the teams Gregor Kobel was again called upon to bail them out, making a fine point-blank save to prevent a Luca Pfeiffer equaliser. Then Sancho, Reus and fellow substitute Youssoufa Moukoko sealed the deal.
Terzić now has plenty of help. Maybe more than he might have requested, with two new assistants in club legends Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender having recently arrived. Sahin’s brief is to make BVB more refined in possession, but it looks like taking time. In the meantime Sancho is the ultimate quick fix. And a happy Sancho, it appears, is already a productive one.
Talking points
• Bayern got the Bundesliga under way in 2024 on Friday with tributes to the late Franz Beckenbauer, as they played their first match since his passing. The 3-0 win over Hoffenheim that followed was even more comprehensive than it looked on paper, give or take a short second-half flurry from the visitors that called a previously, and subsequently, frozen Manuel Neuer into action. At the other end Kane’s 22nd of the season, following on from Jamal Musiala’s brace (Beckenbauer’s song Gute Freunde was played after the goals instead of the Can Can), equalled Robert Lewandowski’s record total for the first half of a Bundesliga season (the England captain actually has a game to beat it, the delayed fixture against Union Berlin, which is played next week).
• In more medium-term news, reports on Monday suggest that Bayern have finally found a deal with the coveted Max Eberl (and his previous club Leipzig) to join, though he will start work after the current transfer window, in which the club still have plenty of work to do.
• Bayer Leverkusen made sure that they lead the Bundesliga at the halfway stage but they left it late, with Exequiel Palacios rifling in a late, late winner at Augsburg, inevitably from an Alejandro Grimaldo assist. It was the perfect boost at the end of a week in which they lost Victor Boniface, who pulled out of Nigeria’s Afcon campaign, with a thigh injury until April (it has been suggested the club might now accelerate their interest in Red Star’s teenage prodigy Jovan Mijatovic). The manner of the victory, if anything, made it more galvanising for Die Werkself. “The goal wasn’t luck,” insisted Xabi Alonso. “It was reward.”
• An extra bonus for Alonso and company – and for Dortmund in their efforts to make up ground to the top four – was that the remaining two in the top four, Stuttgart and Leipzig, both lost. The former (without goal machine Serhou Guirassy, away with Guinea) were blown over 3-1 at Borussia Mönchengladbach after conceding to Robin Hack inside 20 seconds, while Marco Rose’s team were conquered by Ansgar Knauff’s early, brilliant goal in Leipzig for Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bayern 3-0 Hoffenheim, Köln 1-1 Heidenheim, Augsburg 0-1 Leverkusen, Mainz 1-1 Wolfsburg, RB Leipzig 0-1 Eintracht, Freiburg 0-0 Union, Darmstadt 0-3 Dortmund, Mönchengladbach 3-1 Stuttgart, Bochum 1-1 Werder
• It remains tight above Darmstadt at the bottom, with Köln and their new coach Timo Schultz failing to build on a Davie Selke-bequeathed lead and only drawing with Heidenheim, Mainz needing a Silvan Widmer netbuster to take a point from Wolfsburg and Niklas Stark’s late deflected goal getting Werder Bremen a point at Bochum in an ugly game that produced 11 yellow cards (and it felt as if the overworked Tobias Stieler had been lenient).
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 17 | 35 | 45 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 16 | 37 | 41 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 17 | 16 | 34 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 17 | 20 | 33 |
| 5 | Borussia Dortmund | 17 | 8 | 30 |
| 6 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 17 | 7 | 27 |
| 7 | Freiburg | 17 | -5 | 25 |
| 8 | Hoffenheim | 17 | -1 | 24 |
| 9 | Heidenheim | 17 | -7 | 21 |
| 10 | Borussia M'gladbach | 17 | -2 | 20 |
| 11 | Wolfsburg | 17 | -7 | 20 |
| 12 | Augsburg | 17 | -8 | 18 |
| 13 | Werder Bremen | 17 | -7 | 17 |
| 14 | VfL Bochum | 17 | -15 | 17 |
| 15 | Union Berlin | 16 | -14 | 14 |
| 16 | Mainz | 17 | -15 | 11 |
| 17 | Cologne | 17 | -18 | 11 |
| 18 | Darmstadt | 17 | -24 | 10 |
