Newcastle enter race for £25m “phenomenon”

Newcastle United won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League last season, and will surely be looking to raise their game even higher under Eddie Howe’s wing next year.

To do that, they will need to hit the mark in the summer transfer window, which officially opens next Monday. Bryan Mbeumo is involved in a tussle between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, so that’s unfortunately one which St. James’ Park will have to cede, but Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga is fixed on Howe’s radar.

The speedy Elanga, however, is valued at more than £55m by the Tricky Trees, and the Magpies may want to fold their interest, given the perfect alternative has recently been made available on the transfer market.

Newcastle enter race for PL star

As relayed by Caught Offside, Newcastle have entered the race for Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho, who will not sign for Chelsea in a permanent deal after the Blues paid a £5m penalty to sever their obligation to buy clause, worth £25m.

The 25-year-old played his part for Chelsea last season, but Enzo Maresca ultimately wanted to look in a different direction this summer, but that’s not to say Sancho isn’t without his suitors, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur also keen.

There’s no way back for the winger at Ruben Amorim’s Red Devils outfit, so if Newcastle do want to push ahead with a move, they might find negotiations to be comparatively smooth sailing.

Why Newcastle want Jadon Sancho

It certainly wasn’t the worst season in the world for the England international. Across 42 matches in all competitions, Sancho only scored five goals but did rack up ten assists, notably featuring heavily as Chelsea won the Conference League.

In the Premier League, Sancho might have only started 19 matches, but he did clinch seven direct goal contributions, averaging 1.5 dribbles and 1.2 key passes per game, as per Sofascore.

And if you needed further evidence of his qualities, the silky winger finished the 2024/25 campaign ranked among the top 10% of positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues for pass completion, the top 13% for progressive carries and the top 16% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.

In the right environment, under the right manager’s guidance, Sancho has proven himself to be one of the most dangerous widemen in football.

Surely, Sancho at his peak outstrips any version of Elanga, whose progress in Nuno Espirito Santo’s system has been remarkable, but perhaps the underlying data doesn’t favour him, only averaging 0.7 dribbles per Premier League game in 2024/25 (winning 39%), as per Sofascore.

His two-footedness adds another layer to the argument of him being a better option than Elanga, with Howe known to enjoy shuffling his forwards across different positions, even fielding Alexander Isak out on the left flank on occasion.

Arriving in the Premier League as a £73m signing for Manchester United, Sancho has struggled, no doubt, but he was incredible when plying his art with Borussia Dortmund, impressing both domestically and on the biggest European stages.

Even at a lower ebb across the past 12 months (but not his lowest), Sancho has demonstrated a glowing range of qualities. At £25m, surely this represents a better deal than Elanga, who almost matched the Chelsea man for numbers, scoring six goals and assisting 12 more over 43 games?

Given that Forest could be looking to bank north of £50m for Elanga this summer, it perhaps makes more sense to invest in Sancho, who might just find his erstwhile footing on Tyneside, working under Howe’s tutelage to finally realise the potential that once led talent scout Jacek Kulig to hail him as a “phenomenon”.