Manchester United believe they are leading race to sign Jadon Sancho

Manchester United believe they remain the frontrunners to sign Jadon Sancho next year, despite interest from a host of Europe’s top clubs in the Borussia Dortmund and England winger.

Liverpool, Real Madrid and Barcelona are also among those keeping a close eye on Sancho’s situation amid growing expectation that this will be the 19-year-old’s last season in Germany.

Manchester City - whom Sancho left to join Dortmund for £8 million in 2017 - have asked to be kept abreast of developments but Paris St-Germain’s interest has cooled for now and there are doubts Arsenal could compete financially with United for a player who could cost up to £100m.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United manager, wanted to sign Sancho last summer but Dortmund refused to sell and the player was happy to spend another season in Germany.

But relations between Sancho and Dortmund have been strained by events in recent weeks and there is a belief the German club could cash in next year, with a summer transfer still viewed as more likely than any January move.

Despite the threat of no Champions League football for a second successive season, United - currently nine points adrift of the top four - believe they are still at the head of the queue for Sancho and consider him a priority target as part of their rebuilding process. United have not signed a natural right winger since Wilfried Zaha in 2013 and Solskjaer wants the position addressing.

Liverpool are also interested but the Merseyside club are thought to be reluctant to get into an auction for a player who has two years left on his contract next summer.

In a mindset similar to that adopted by Manchester City under Pep Guardiola in the past few years, Liverpool - at present eight points clear at the top of the table - are determined to recruit players who buy in wholly to what they are putting together and who are excited by the prospect of playing for the reigning European champions and Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool’s ultimate ambition would be to recruit Kylian Mbappe from Paris St-Germain, even if their interest in the France striker is balanced by recognition of the enormous and potentially prohibitive costs involved.

As such, Liverpool are keeping their options open and Klopp’s strong ties with Dortmund, where he spent eight years as manager before the move to Anfield in 2015, would be beneficial where Sancho is concerned and leave him very well-placed to establish a clear picture of the player’s character and attitude.

There were well-founded reports last week that Sancho felt humiliated and scapegoated after his first half substitution in the 4-0 defeat to Bayern Munich two and a half weeks ago and subsequent public criticism from manager Lucien Favre.

Favre - whose own position is under scrutiny with Dortmund struggling - said the decision to withdraw Sancho after just 36 minutes, with the scoreline at 1-0, had nothing to do with pre-match concerns over the player’s fitness and was a consequence solely that his performance was “not good enough”.

It came less than a month after Sancho was fined and dropped for the league game against Bundesliga leaders Borussia Monchengladbach last month after returning late from international duty with England.

Favre told reporters that Sancho had “a lot to learn” and Michael Zorc, Dortmund’s sporting director, cited the teenager’s youth and meteoric rise as a reason why he “might test his limits”.