Paul Pogba reveals why Jadon Sancho should not go back to Manchester United after strong Chelsea start
Following the winger’s loan move from Manchester United to Chelsea, Paul Pogba has been pleased with Jadon Sancho’s early performances.
After moving from Borussia Dortmund to Old Trafford in 2021, Sancho had a difficult time there. After a falling out with Erik ten Hag, the manager of United, he returned to the German team for the last season. In August, he was given another loan by Chelsea, who sent him to West London for the season with a buyout option of up to £25 million if certain requirements were fulfilled.
Sancho, a lifelong Chelsea supporter, has excelled at Stamford Bridge. In his debut, he came off the bench to set up Christopher Nkunku’s winner at Bournemouth, and in a 3-0 victory at West Ham, he contributed another assist in his first start.
Pogba and Sancho were briefly team-mates at Old Trafford, spending the 2021-22 season together under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick. And the French international made it perfectly clear how he feels about his ex-colleague’s revival.
Sancho shared a set of photos from Saturday’s win at the London Stadium on his Instagram account. Among them was one of his celebrations with Nicolas Jackson, whose opening goal came after a pass from the winger.
“Solid performance from the boys, have a great weekend blues,” Sancho wrote, tagging Chelsea’s official account. Pogba’s response was a straightforward one, with the Frenchman simply replying: “Him”.
Pogba wasn’t the only former team-mate spotted in the comments. Borussia Dortmund duo Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Gregor Kobel both offered their congratulations, while current colleague Tosin replied “another one” after a second assist in as many games.
Chelsea were 2-0 up in East London before half-time, with Jackson racing through to score his second from a Moises Caicedo pass. Caicedo and Sancho were both singled out for praise by manager Enzo Maresca, while he was pleased with the entire team performance as Cole Palmer made the points safe early in the second half.
“He is top,’ Maresca said of Caicedo. “His performance yesterday was very good, but since we started Moi has been fantastic and yesterday once again he was top.”
On Sancho, he added: “Jadon did well, it was exactly what we were expecting from him. He worked off the ball very hard with [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka, and also in the second half. Then Pedro [Neto] came on and he did well, so we are happy.”
The next target for Sancho will be a first goal in English football since the final day of the 2022-23 Premier League season, when Manchester United beat Fulham. He could be given a chance to do just that in midweek, when Chelsea take on League Two side Barrow in the Carabao Cup.