Liverpool legend John Barnes has not exactly done his old club a favour as he warns Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho about a potential transfer to Anfield.
The England wonderkid is one of the most exciting up-and-coming talents in Europe at the moment after some dazzling displays in the Bundesliga in recent times, and that’s unsurprisingly led to talk of him possibly returning to the Premier League.
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Sancho has been linked with a host of top clubs, with the Transfer Window Podcast recently explaining, however, that Manchester United look to be ahead of Liverpool in the running for the moment.
Barnes, however, believes Sancho could do well to think twice about joining Liverpool due to the fact that it could mean less playing time and therefore lead to stalling his development.
On top of that, the 19-year-old would likely have to cope with the pressure of a big price tag early on in his career, so Barnes thinks it could be wise to avoid making that big move too soon.
“If Jadon Sancho is willing to come to Liverpool and not play every week and sit on the bench, then absolutely he should come to Liverpool,” Barnes told BonusCodeBets, as quoted by Football365.
“But I always tell young players to be careful and play at a high level for four-five years before moving to a bigger club.
“(Mohamed) Salah and (Sadio) Mane have been around for four or five seasons now and have shown their quality and experience, whereas Sancho has been around for 18 months and needs to show that consistency over a three-year period before he costs £100million to a huge club.
“That doesn’t happen in modern football anymore, nowadays, if you are young and have just one good season, someone is going to spend £80million-plus on you.
“I would advise Jadon Sancho to develop more and show that level of consistency before he is going to be put under a lot of pressure by being a £100million player playing at one of the biggest clubs in the world.”