Jadon Sancho arrived at Manchester United in 2021 and said it was a “dream come true”. It ended up being a nightmare for all involved.The England international winger’s five-year spell at Old Trafford promised so much, yet delivered so little.When he signed from Borussia Dortmund, the former Manchester City academy graduate was overjoyed. But it would turn out to be a very expensive mistake for United, one that drove the career of a player seemingly destined for the top well off-course.The cold cost of the transfer laid bare is startling.United paid Dortmund £73million ($97.6m at the current rate) to sign Sancho and agreed wages of £250,000 per week, as The Athletic reported when he joined them.That would bring the total cost of the transfer to £138million, although substantial figures would need to be deducted from that, given he has had subsequent loan spells back at Dortmund and to Chelsea and Aston Villa over the past three seasons, where significant portions of his salary were paid by the clubs who borrowed him. There were also significant wage cuts — around 25 per cent — in campaigns when United were not competing in the Champions League, while Chelsea also paid his parent club £5million to get out of an obligation to buy Sancho last summer.Yet there can be little denying this was a wildly-expensive deal which did not work out for United, as his time at the club draws to a close, with Sancho having scored only 12 goals and provided six assists in 83 appearances (just 41 of them Premier League starts) for the Old Trafford side across the five seasons.When United signed Sancho, he had only recently turned 21. They previously tried to prise him away from Dortmund 12 months earlier but could not agree a fee.After then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side had suffered defeat in the Europa League final against Villarreal on May 26 to complete their 2020-21 season, a recruitment meeting was held the next day with the idea of landing Sancho as quickly as possible.They felt the London-born winger could help provide a creative spark for Solskjaer’s attack, and they were prepared to do what was needed to land someone who had scored 50 goals and registered 64 assists in 137 appearances over four seasons in Germany.When the deal was done, Sancho had just been part of an England team which reached the Euro 2020 final (held in 2021), although he did miss one of the penalties in the shootout loss to Italy that night at Wembley. Still, there was huge excitement around Old Trafford about his arrival.Jadon Sancho was one of Europe’s most exciting young players when he joined Manchester United (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)Yet almost immediately, things started to go wrong.Sancho contracted an ear infection before he could meet up with his new team-mates and the issue meant his integration into the squad was delayed.The unexpected return of Cristiano Ronaldo for a second spell at United later in that same summer window also became a problem for the Englishman.