‘They paid quite a few pounds for him’ – Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick on Jadon Sancho justifying price tag

Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick says Jadon Sancho is starting to look like a £73m player after taking time to settle in since his move from Borussia Dortmund last summer.

Sancho was not an instant success at Old Trafford and after a tricky start, he was relegated to performances off the bench under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But he has been a big part of Rangnick’s recent plans.

The German has long been a fan of Sancho and says he wanted to bring him to Leipzig, before he chose Dortmund instead.

“Jadon Sancho is now getting closer to the Jadon Sancho I’ve known from Germany,” said Rangnick.

“In the end it’s all about confidence. Game time, confidence. Confidence, game time. He was performing at a very high level.

“At the end, they are all human beings. The mere fact he cost a lot of money does not mean that he is playing at that level to start with.

“He told me that of course it was a problem for him to get adjusted to the intensity of the league, to the physicality of the league.

“Now he has managed to do that. I’m happy to see him play at that kind of level right now.”

Rangnick says one of his first priorities was to help Sancho get back to the form he showed at Dortmund, and now he is turning his attention to one of his team-mates.

“When I came here it was clear we had to try everything to help him to get the best version of himself,” the interim boss added.

“And the same actually – I repeat myself – is true for a player like Marcus Rashford, for example.”