Jadon Sancho has hailed Chelsea for "making me feel at home", despite the club paying £5million to send him back to Manchester United after his mixed loan spell. The Blues had a chance to sign Sancho permanently for £25m this summer but opted to pay a penalty fee instead.
In a statement on social media, the winger said: "Grateful for the experience. Big love to everyone at Chelsea who made me feel at home — teammates, staff and the fans.
Wishing the club all the best moving forward. Truly grateful, Thank you Blues 💙🙏🏼"
It means an uncertain future for the former England winger, who left Old Trafford following a prolonged falling out with former boss Erik ten Hag and had not been expected to return.
Ruben Amorim currently has no plans to reintegrate Sancho in the Manchester United squad, so a move to Saudi Arabia looks more likely as very few clubs in Europe can afford his £300,000-a-week wages.
Currently, Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr and Al-Ittihad are the main three teams interested in signing Sancho this summer.
It was anticipated that the move to west London, which was agreed late in last summer’s transfer window, would herald a fresh start and reinvigorate a career that had stalled at United, where Sancho had rarely matched the form he had displayed for his former club Borussia Dortmund.
However, following a bright start in which he assisted the winning goal for Christopher Nkunku against Bournemouth on his Chelsea debut, his contributions for Enzo Maresca’s side were at best patchy.
He scored only five goals in 41 appearances across the season, though that number included memorable Premier League strikes against Tottenham and Ipswich as well as the third goal in Chelsea’s 4-1 Conference League final victory over Real Betis.
Maresca always publicly backed him whilst indicating he wanted more goals from the former Manchester City academy player, though he also made similar demands of his other wingers, Noni Madueke and Pedro Neto.
In the end, Sancho was made to settle for being rotated in and out of the team with Neto and Madueke, with youth product Tyrique George also coming into the side.
Chelsea are pushing ahead with alternatives in attack in Sancho's absence, with a deal for Ipswich forward Liam Delap expected to be announced imminently.
Other targets for Chelsea include Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams and Red Bull Leipzig's Xavi Simons as boss Enzo Maresca prepares for the Champions League.