It’s not too late for Jadon Sancho.
Jadon Sancho is currently stuck in footballing wilderness but he can take a leaf from young Ireland striker Aaron Connolly and revive his career.
The lost souls of football stars is a difficult place to escape from as lots of young hopefuls with promising careers find themselves locked out in the dark.
You only need to look at the likes of Dele Ali, or Jesse Lingard to see how quickly you can fall from being the ‘next big thing’ to ‘where is he now?’
Sancho has been banned from all first team privileges by Erik ten Hag following a public outburst from the young winger on social media.
Even before this ban however, the Englishman was struggling to get into the team and having very little impact on games when he was involved.
After his £70m transfer from Borrusia Dortmund, everyone expected the England international to hit the ground running and become the future of Old Trafford.
However, injuries, lack of form and mental health struggles have all hampered his career in a Man United jersey, and now this conflict with ten Hag looks to be the final nail in the coffin.
Ali was a star at Tottenham before he lost his way and now struggles to get into the Everton squad despite them battling with relegation, while Lingard went from scoring a wonder goal at the 2018 World Cup to now being without a club following a deeply disappointing season with Nottingham Forest.
All is not lost however, as Connolly is proving to be a rarity and bounced back from footballing exile to become the main man at Hull City.
The Irishman is having a blistering start to the season, already bagging five goals in the Championship as the Tigers enjoy a successful start to their campaign.
Like the aforementioned stars, Connolly burst onto the scene in a way that would make Micah Richards blush, scoring two goals for Brighton on his Premier League debut in a 3-0 win over Tottenham back in 2019.
At just 19 years of age, the pressure and expectation was immediately heaped onto the young goal getter, and he was thrust into the Ireland senior team and all looked set for him to become the next Robbie Keane.
However, things didn’t quite work out that way as his form dipped, he lost his place in the Brighton squad, and was shipped off to Middlesbrough on a loan deal that never really worked out.
Now desperate to revive his career, it looked like last chance saloon when he was loaned out to Italian Serie B club Venezia, but again the young forward couldn’t get up and running again.
Connolly was even demoted from the Ireland senior squad to the u21s, although he saw this as an opportunity to get precious match time and work on his game.
Next he was loaned to Hull City where things started brightly but injury ruled him out for much of the season. Thankfully for him, Ireland fans and the club, they took a chance on him and offered a one-year contract on a permanent basis.
Now with the season barely two months old and five goals already clocked up, it’s looking to be one of the buys of the season, and one of the few fairytale stories in football, where a young prodigy manages to work his way back into form.
Obviously Sancho’s situation is on a much grander scale giving the size of the club he is at and the money involved, but the lesson is still thee to be learnt.
If United is an environment that the young star can thrive in, then he needs to get out of it, take a chance elsewhere, even if it means taking a step down, and rebuilding his career.
Sancho needs to do what Connolly did, be patient, work hard, make brave decisions and then take the opportunity when it finally arrives.
Related links:
- Erik ten Hag gives cold response when asked about Jadon Sancho’s future
- Erik ten Hag unapologetic about strict stance with Jadon Sancho
- Pundit tears into Man United for “cruel” and &” disgusting” treatment of Jadon Sancho
