What can Man United learn from flops Van de Beek and Sancho?

Rob DawsonJan 17, 2024, 05:00 AM ET

It's been a chastening transfer window for Manchester United so far, but one which should give new minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe a good idea of what needs to change at Old Trafford.

The British billionaire and INEOS chairman, not yet in charge of football operations but still being kept across developments while his 25% stake is ratified, has seen players worth more than £100 million ushered out of the door as they look to restart their careers elsewhere.

Two examples include Donny van de Beek, who was signed for £40m from Ajax in 2020 and has now joined Eintracht Frankfurt on loan, and Jadon Sancho, a £73m signing from Borussia Dortmund in 2021, who has agreed to a temporary deal to return to his former club until the end of the season.

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On the surface, both looked like good additions only to leave a couple of years later as unmitigated disasters. It raises a question that's hard to answer but one that Ratcliffe and his team, headed by INEOS director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford, must do their best to solve: Were Van de Beek and Sancho always doomed to fail or should the finger of blame point at the club? Put simply, were they bad signings, or good signings turned bad by United?

It's an extreme example but what, say, would have happened to Jude Bellingham's career had he chosen a different path? His sliding doors moment came in March 2020 when both United and Borussia Dortmund agreed to a fee with Birmingham City for the teenage midfielder.

Bellingham eventually chose Dortmund and, 3½ years later, is at Real Madrid and considered one of the best players in the world. Still only 20, this week he was included in FIFA's World XI. Maybe Bellingham is so good that nothing could have stopped his trajectory and, had he joined United in the summer of 2020, he would still have gone on to be named among the 11 best players in the world in January 2024 alongside Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland. But maybe not.

Maybe instead of a glitzy ceremony in London, January 2024 would be remembered by Bellingham as the month he returned to Birmingham on loan. It seems far-fetched, knowing what we do now, but you would say the same about Sancho if you'd been told when he arrived at Old Trafford that in the space of 2½ years, he'd be back at Dortmund.

Even Gary Neville, a boyhood United fan who won everything during a nearly 20-year playing career at the club, is beginning to doubt himself.

"I have spoken to players before they come here saying you'll never regret it, it's a magic football club, looking back that's pretty poor advice," Neville said after the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

"Other players who have chosen other clubs have gone on to be really successful. You think of Jude Bellingham. Well done to him, he chose Dortmund and is now one of the greatest players in the world.

"What would have happened if he came here? I don't know, maybe he would be a success but I'm not so sure because of the culture."

There's evidence to suggest the problem is not always the player. Of United's 10 most expensive signings only one -- Bruno Fernandes -- comes close to looking like a success. For a couple of others, like Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount, and Casemiro, the jury is still out but the rest (Paul Pogba, Antony, Harry Maguire, Sancho, Romelu Lukaku and Ángel Di María) will all go down as expensive mistakes.

Pogba left on a free transfer in 2022 but in 2018, was part of a France team that won the World Cup while Di María won it with Argentina in 2022. Lukaku scored 64 goals in 95 games at Inter Milan after leaving United (although it was followed by an ill-fated move to Chelsea) and Maguire was part of an England side that reached the European Championship final in 2021.

Not every situation is the same, but the one thing that links them all is a big-money move to United followed by a string of underwhelming performances. It's happened so often in the 10 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired that it can't just be down to the players. There is, though, a different perspective.

Asked this month about what went wrong for Van de Beek and Sancho, manager Erik ten Hag suggested it all comes down to character. Either a player can cope with the pressure of playing for United or they can't.

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"That is always on those players and how much confidence you have in your capabilities," he said.

"I can tell you one thing -- the Premier League is tough, Manchester United, that is tough to play there because it is easier to play in almost any other team than Manchester United because the pressure is that high, always.

"You have to deal with that. It depends from player to player, and it depends especially on the character of the player, their personality."

Dortmund manager Edin Terzic hinted at something similar in the summer when talking about Sancho's struggles. Asked whether he was surprised that Sancho had failed to recreate his form in Germany while at United, Terzic said: "Not really. If you are wearing a price tag and a shirt of Manchester United, maybe it's a bit heavier than the shirt of BVB. If a young player is moving on to somewhere like Manchester United, of course the pressure is a bit higher."

That, though, doesn't explain how Bellingham and Haaland were able to fit in seamlessly at Real Madrid and Manchester City, respectively, after leaving Dortmund.

What if Van de Beek and Sancho had done things differently? Van de Beek, on the Ballon d'Or shortlist in 2019, almost joined Real Madrid and Sancho was, at one point, also keen on a move to Spain. Would Maguire now be considered a success had he joined City -- who were in for him at the time -- instead of United when he left Leicester in 2019?

City eventually settled on Rúben Dias a year later -- a player United also looked at -- and this week he was another named in FIFA's best XI after helping Pep Guardiola's team win five trophies in 2023.

Maguire would probably argue it's been easier for Dias to slot into Guardiola's winning machine than a team desperately trying to rediscover past glories, but you can't ignore the marked differences in how they've fared since moving to Manchester. Maguire, still the most expensive defender in the world at £80m, was available for transfer in the summer and almost joined West Ham.

The new shareholders have a lot to get through when they finally get the green light to make decisions and recruitment will be top of the list. There will, inevitably, be changes to the way United identify players but also a focus on creating the right environment for them to walk into. Van de Beek and Sancho had bright futures extinguished during their time at United and, more than anything else, Ratcliffe has to figure out why.