Man Utd’s Sancho hopes take a hit as Dortmund star heads to pre-season training camp

Manchester United’s hopes of signing Jadon Sancho have diminished after the England winger was named in the squad that will travel for Borussia Dortmund’s pre-season training camp.

The Old Trafford club have pursued the forward for several months and appeared to be closing in on a deal last week, but they have failed to meet BVB’s deadline for getting the signing over the line.

The Bundesliga runners-up had wanted the transfer completed before their pre-season training camp but they have named Sancho in the group that travelled to Switzerland on Monday, suggesting that it has become much more complicated for United to complete a deal that was expected to be valued around the €120 million (£108m/$141m) mark.

Hopes had briefly flickered over the weekend that it would be completed as Sancho was spotted in London, but Dortmund quickly extinguished that.

"It's common and fine for players to go home before a training camp if they're not risky," Dortmund's press spokesman Sascha Fligge said.

"The same goes for Jadon. From our point of view, the pictures that have been shown to us do not violate the current Coronavirus Protection Ordinance or hygiene regulations."

The 20-year-old has reportedly agreed personal terms with the Red Devils and wants a switch to Old Trafford, but BVB chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke insisted on Wednesday that there had been no talks between the two clubs.

"So far, there has been no contact between Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United in terms of Sancho," he told Suddeutsche Zeitung.

"Also not directly or through alleged intermediaries."

Sancho, who joined the Bundesliga outfit from Manchester City in 2017, is coming off the back of a career-best season with Dortmund, where he scored 20 goals and assisted 20 more in all competitions, making him one of the most sought after commodities in the market this summer.

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent financial uncertainty, however, has complicated his exit, with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool unwilling to stump up the kind of fee that Dortmund are demanding for him to depart the club, leaving United the sole team chasing him.

Meanwhile, fellow young Englishman Jude Bellingham has also travelled to Switzerland after arriving from Birmingham City earlier this summer.