Where do we all stand on Sancho then? His loss or ours?
Personally, i think we dodged a bullet. If he isn't willing to wait for his chance when he is 17, and refuses to train, imagine how bad his attitude would be if he wasn't playing every week at Sterling/Sane's age. Always gonna get more of a chance at Dortmund, they are not on the same level as us and the Bundesliga is a lot more forgiving than the Prem IMO.
Even if he becomes a top player, which i doubt he will now, i wouldn't regret it. Can't be being held to ransom by 17 year olds, no matter how good they might be in the youth team. If you're good enough, you're old enough, but Sancho wasn't good enough just yet. He didn't even wait till january, even though he would be part of the squad.
Brahim and Foden have their heads screwed on and at least one of them, if not both, will make it big here. I'm certain. We don't need to worry about EDS progression, IMO. If we produce one player good enough for the side every few years, that's good enough for me. Right now, we have a couple, after just 3 years. Not bad.
If I was in Sancho's shoes I would have done exactly the same and gone to Dortmund.
Not a chance am I getting a game in this City team no matter how good I am. The games are all of too much importance.
With regards to loans, I agree with Pochettino in that players can pick up bad habits, so it's better that when they are good enough just play them and coach them into the player you want then to be. Plus the loan system is notoriously unpredictable, hit and miss and overall unreliable.
Sancho has already come on as a substitute for Dortmund and it wouldn't surprise me by the end of the season to see him have 15-20 league appearances and be not far off a first team regular. They lost Ousmane Dembele and now Marco Reus until the end of the season by the looks of it, so there is now a space opening up for him. A clear pathway.
I don't necessarily agree with the patience argument when it comes to Sancho. I think he is one of the rare talents like Mbappe, Sterling, Sane, Ousmane Dembele, all of whom were pretty much regulars in their first teams by the age of 18/19. He will likely achieve that at Dortmund wheras at City he would have no chance.