Former Chelsea academy scout Chris Robinson admits he passed up on the chance to bring Jadon Sancho to the Premier League giants long before the £73 million winger joined Manchester United.
Chelsea were heavily linked with a move for the England international before Jadon Sancho re-traced his steps with a loan move back to Borussia Dortmund during the January transfer window.
This is not the first time Sancho slipped through Chelsea’s hands either. The Blues, after all, had the opportunity to sign Sancho when he was still a junior at Watford.
Chris Robinson, who worked as an academy scout for the London giants at the time, admits that the former Man City starlet was one of the players he opted against taking a chance on long before Manchester United stumped up an eye-watering £73 million to bring Sancho back to England in 2021.
Chelsea could have had Manchester United man
“This is a bit embarrassing for me,” Robinson tells the Rising Ballers YouTube channel. “I was watching an England game on TV and one of my sons phoned me up and said: ‘You do realise you said no to three of these players who are playing for England?’”
In addition to Sancho, who has not come close to living up to his sizeable price-tag at Old Trafford, Robinson also looked at Dele Alli and Joe Gomez before deciding that neither were up to scratch.
In Robinson’s defence, only one of the three is currently producing high-level performances at the top level, Gomez’s versatility coming in very handy for a Liverpool side combating a series of injury issues.
“Dele Alli, I saw when he was playing first-team football for MK Dons at 17. I didn’t feel he was better than we already had at Chelsea in Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lewis Baker,” Robinson adds.
“He went to Spurs and blossomed as a player. Lots of other scouts at Chelsea came to the same conclusion, so it wasn’t just me.
“Joe Gomez, when he was at Charlton at 16 or 17, I thought he was a great athlete. I didn’t think he was a great footballer. He’s gone on and done OK, hasn’t he? And Jadon Sancho. I saw Jadon when he was an under-14 playing as a striker for Watford.
“I thought he was all right. Just OK. He signed for Manchester City almost straight after and we knew City were interested. He became a winger there and the player he later became for Dortmund.”
Jadon Sancho struggling at Dortmund
After a bright start to life back in Germany – Sancho netted an assist on his second Dortmund debut – the quality of his performances have faded alarmingly. And while the winger may still outlive the under-pressure Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, that is likely to be because finding a buyer may be easier said than done.
Sancho’s parent club face his former employers this weekend, meanwhile. United travel to City in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
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