Although heavily linked with a move this summer with reports suggesting he has already agreed terms with Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund are confident they can ward off the Red Devols’ transfer interest in Sancho as they are prepared to break the bank to convince the brilliant striker to stay back.
With Sancho’s future still hovering dubiously in the air, his employers at the Bundesliga are pulling out all stops by sugarcoating his contract extension in a resolute move to fend off the pack of potential suitors keen on ensnaring him.
Dortmund believe they can persuade the England winger to sign a one-year extension worth £9million, according to Forbes as the 20-year-old’s current deal is due to run until 2022, but Dortmund want to add another season on top of this by offering Sancho a £3.5m increase to his annual salary.
Their confidence stems in major part to the uncertainty brought about by the coronavirus crisis that is exerting undue pressure on elite clubs to reconsider their summer transfer plans due to financial instability.
Dortmund have already made it clear they will not accept anything less than their asking price of around £100-120million for Sancho, even in the prevailing economic climate. And hedging their bet by upping the ante on their star player with a £3.5m salary increase would hopefully discourage potential suitors.
It’s the Bundesliga club’s ardent hope that the sort of money needed to extract Sancho might not be available for United, and also Chelsea, over the summer. As it stands, United are believed to already be seeking out alternatives in the event they are not able to finance a move for Sancho this year, with French publication Le 10 Sport reporting that Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix has already been lined up by United as a back-up option should they fail in their bid for Sancho.
United, however, are playing a different tune coming off the back of reports that they have already gone as far as having agreed on terms with Sancho, despite not having discussed a fee with Dortmund.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had been blowing his trumpet, adamantly declaring that the current crisis would not hamper his spending this summer, citing United’s financial superiority over their rivals.
“Football is going to get back to normality at one point, and it’s very important we’re ready when that happens,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports.
“Then, the market, who knows how the market is going to react to this? Who knows which clubs need to sell players?
“There might be just a situation there where you can exploit, and I know that we at Man United we are one of the biggest, and the biggest, financially well-off.
“I’m sure we are capable, when we get back to normality, that we can do the business that we want to.”