What Chelsea must give Man Utd if they don’t want to sign Jadon Sancho | Football

Manchester United will receive £5 million from Chelsea if the Blues pull out of a deal to sign Jadon Sancho.

After three unhappy years at Old Trafford, the England winger was handed a Premier League lifeline by Chelsea in the summer.

Sancho made a bright start to his stint at the west London club following a loan move but his form has tailed off in recent weeks, culminating in an abject display against Arsenal prior to the international break.

Sancho’s move to Chelsea included a £25 million obligation to buy clause but the prospect of the Blues backing out of that arrangement has increased in recent weeks.

Should Chelsea renege on that agreement and Sancho be forced to reluctantly return to United, they will have to pay their Premier League rivals £5m, according to The Athletic.

Publicly, Chelsea maintain they are happy with Sancho and have given no indication they will not keep him on a permanent basis.

Indeed, as recently as January, manager Enzo Maresca, who worked with the player during their time together at Manchester City, insisted he was happy with Sancho’s progress.

‘For me he’s doing very well,’ Maresca said. ‘I am quite surprised with Jadon, because I knew Jadon already (from seeing him at his previous clubs) and I know what I expected from him, but in terms of being consistent, he’s doing very well.

‘Apart from a short part of the season (early November) when he had some problems. When he was out ill but for the rest he has been very good.

‘I expected him to do well, but for all the players doing well for a long period is not easy, and he has been doing well for a long period already. He’s doing well, now he just needs to continue going in that way.’

Chelsea are keen to sign another winger in the summer, regardless of Sancho’s fate, with doubts persisting over the future of Mykhailo Mudryk.

Mudryk is currently unable to train or play for Chelsea after a drugs test carried out in October returned with an adverse finding in the winger’s ‘A’ sample.

It’s understood that Mudryk tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, the heart drug for which tennis star Maria Sharapova received a two-year ban, which was later reduced to 15 months.

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