Borussia Dortmund has changed their stance on Jadon Sancho and is willing to wait before they sell him, according to The Telegraph.

The 20-year-old is Manchester United’s top transfer target this summer and would bring a world class option to the right wing position for the first time since the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham wore the famous number 7 shirt.

It has been widely reported, for example, by The Athletic, that ‘‘There’s an understanding between Sancho and Borussia Dortmund that if the right price arrives then he can go.’

The outlet also reported this week that Sancho’s camp ‘have almost no doubt’ that an offer will come in for the player this summer and Dortmund’s own executive Carsten Cramer hinted just three days ago that the club might be willing to bend on its £120 million asking price, saying ‘Flexibility is very important … I’m very sure the expectations of high fees will go down as well.’

However, if The Telegraph’s Mike McGrath is correct, the Bundesliga side appears to have done a u-turn and have decided to keep Sancho until the market recovers.

‘Borussia Dortmund are willing to wait until the transfer market stabilises before selling Jadon Sancho’ McGrath says.
‘Fees and wages are expected to drop by as much as 50% when the summer window opens but Dortmund are determined to get full value for Sancho and want more than £100million for the England forward.’

‘Dortmund are willing to wait until the market is back to normal before cashing in on Sancho, rather than let him go cheaply.’

The German side will be aware that the Red Devils are now the only club likely to bid on the England international this summer, where before the financial crisis hit, they were looking forward to a bidding war that could have included Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Chelsea, among others.

By delaying the player’s sale by a year, they will hope that the market will have recovered so that there is once again competition for United in the bidding.

However, it is a dangerous game to play. As Sancho’s contract expires in 2022, there will only be one more summer transfer window left for Dortmund to cash in on their asset and buying clubs will know that.

There is no guarantee the market will have recovered by summer 2021 with a world recession widely forecast. And the player himself might have a poor run of form, have disciplinary problems or sustain an injury over the next 12 months.

Ultimately, it seems we are in for a long summer. Dortmund will not sell Sancho at a bargain basement price – we have seen German clubs did their heels in time and again in similar circumstances – and United are unlikely to pay £120 million for a player whose value has been reduced to half of that amount by football’s recession. A compromise must surely be reached.

-Onefootball.com