Ahead of the last summer window and through a large part of it, Jadon Sancho to Manchester United was the biggest rumour in football.
The story became an industry in itself with multiple claims each day and something of an arms war as people tried to hype the potential move up.
Borussia Dortmund remained stubborn with their claims, and insisted that once the deadline had been missed, and €120m hadn’t been paid, that Sancho wouldn’t be moving to Manchester United or anywhere else.
Recent weeks have seen reports from Germany that this time Dortmund could be convinced to sell for less, given their losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. That would be good news for Manchester United, depending of course on how much the discount is.
On the pitch, Sancho has had ups and downs this season, with some criticism going his way earlier in the campaign. He’s seen Erling Haaland very much take the stage as BVB’s star and the man everyone wants to sign from the club.
However, the Englishman hasn’t been sitting back. This week’s edition of SportBild reports that in December, whilst going through something of a ‘crisis’, Sancho approached the coaching staff at Dortmund, eager to find ways to improve himself.
That’s seen him start extra training, which includes going for a run at 5.22am. As a result, the 20-year-old is now ‘much more disciplined’ and is no longer late for group training.
Since the turn of the year, across ten Bundesliga matches, the young attacker has scored six goals and added the same number of assists.
An eagerness to improve himself can only be good news for Manchester United should they finally sink the blow and sign Jadon Sancho in the next window.
