Jurgen Klopp has held talks with Jadon Sancho and Liverpool are now ahead of Manchester United in the race to sign the £109m star from Borussia Dortmund next summer, according to the Independent.
United spent much of the summer chasing Sancho after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the England international his number one transfer target but doing a deal with Dortmund proved extremely difficult.
The Bundesliga club refused to negotiate on their £109m [€120m] asking price despite United making offers and they insisted any deal had to be completed before they began pre-season training on August 10th ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
That self-imposed deadline passed without a fee being agreed and Manchester United failed to convince Dortmund to do business before the summer transfer window slammed shut on Monday night.
Many assumed Man Utd would simply do a deal next summer to finally lure Sancho to Old Trafford, however, it looks like the Manchester giants are going to face stiff competition next time around.
The Independent claims that Jurgen Klopp has already spoken to Sancho in the past about a move to Anfield and the paper believes that Liverpool are now in pole position ahead of Man Utd to sign the winger.
The Premier League champions weren’t in a position to spend over £100m on a transfer this summer but the Independent says that is expected to change next year when their finances will be more stable so they will be right in the mix for Sancho’s signature.
According to the newspaper, Sancho was prepared to join United this summer but refused to force his way out of Dortmund by submitting a transfer request – which may have led to the club lowering their valuation.
Controversially, the Independent suggests that the 21-year-old’s preferred choice has always been Liverpool and Sancho is expected to re-assess his options next summer now the Merseysiders are in the race.
It won’t just be Liverpool in the running as the report says Bayern Munich are also expected to be contenders for Sancho next summer so it looks as though United will face plenty of competition.
This news will come as a big blow to Solskjaer and the Norwegian coach must be hugely frustrated at the clubs failure to land Sancho this summer while they had a clear run at him.
It looks like there will be a fierce battle for the youngster next year but let’s hope Sancho ends up at Liverpool or Man Utd as it would be great to have him playing in the Premier League next season.
