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Out of all the transfer rumors that Tottenham Hotspur have been involved with, strangely we haven’t yet talked about Jadon Sancho. So let’s do it. ESPN is reporting that Sancho — a highly regarded teenage wide attacking midfielder, is fed up with life in Manchester City’s academy and wants a move to Tottenham Hotspur.
Sancho, 17, is a hugely talented winger and a prolific scorer. Though a year younger, he’s often mentioned in the same breath as Spurs’ Marcus Edwards in terms of ability in their player generation. He had 15 goals and 6 assists last season playing for City’s U18s, and also had three goals and two assists for their U23s... playing as a 16 year old.
An accomplished England youth international, Sancho was named Golden Player (i.e. player of the tournament) in this summer’s U17 Euros, a competition in which England bowed out in the championship match. While I’m not going to pretend that I’ve seen him play a bunch, he’s reportedly fast, tricky, and extraordinarily talented.
Heres a little of what he can do from this summer’s Euros.
Sancho doesn’t see a path to the first team at City — it’s not tough to see why — and is agitating for a move to join Spurs to play for Mauricio Pochettino. He’s also a London native and wants to return home to play his football. He wouldn’t be able to play for Spurs until his current scholarship contract expires, and according to Dan Kilpatrick, City might not be willing to let a young homegrown player of his caliber leave.
Manchester City would be due compensation if he does signs with Spurs, which according to the EPPP could be around £3-4m. That’s not quite cheap for a 17-year old youth player, but considering Ryan Sessegnon is now worth £30m, it’s well worth taking a punt.
Sancho would be a super exciting young player to sign, but if he comes don’t expect him to make an immediate impact. That said, if he develops according to plan, we could see a forward attacking band that includes Sancho and Edwards starting behind Kane against Barcelona in the 2023 Champions League finals.