Erik ten Hag will hold talks with Jadon Sancho following his social media statement on Sunday evening.
The Manchester United manager made the decision to drop Sancho from his squad entirely when the club took on Arsenal at the Emirates last night.
Supporters pondered the omission, suggesting that the winger may have fallen ill or sustained an injury mid-week, given that there’d been no announcement from United on his availability.
However, Ten Hag didn’t shy away from clarifying his decision post-match when being quizzed by reporters. He stated: “On his performance in training we didn’t select him. You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game, he wasn’t selected.”
Sancho then took it upon himself, and likely without the advice of any PR team, to rebut the manager’s claims with a strongly-worded response on Twitter.
“Please don’t believe everything you read. I will not allow people saying things that [are] completely untrue, I have conducted myself very well in training this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!”
— Jadon Sancho (@Sanchooo10) September 3, 2023
After a substandard start to the campaign, the last thing United needs is highly-publicised drama between Ten Hag and his own player, as it shows to fans – and other clubs – that the dressing room is unsettled.
That’s why the Dutchman is planning to speak to Sancho imminently to find a resolution to the situation.
Romano on Sancho & Ten Hag
Fabrizio Romano touched on the topic during the latest instalment of the Debrief podcast, saying: “There were some opportunities in the summer [for Sancho to leave] but honestly, from what I heard, it was not something concrete or something advanced, also because Jadon Sancho wanted to stay at Man United and do his best for Manchester United.
“As he mentioned yesterday in his public statement, he wants to fight from the bench so Jadon Sancho’s position is very clear; he wants to stay at Manchester United – this is one of the reasons why he is still at the club.
“The situation with Erik ten Hag is not easy, but it’s not just with Ten Hag, it’s also [not easy] with some of the coaching staff. They were not happy with his attitude in training and this is the reason why Sancho was not part of the squad for the last game against Arsenal.
“The situation is pretty tense between the coaching staff and Sancho, but from the player’s side they insist on the same position – he wants to play for Man United and he wants to fight for Man United. They expect Sancho to have a direct conversation with Ten Hag and with people from the coaching staff, in the next few days, probably this week, to try to clarify this situation.
“We will see for the January transfer window if they will continue like this, I think they will try to find a solution but at the moment the idea is to continue together but the public statement yesterday is not helping the player because Man United are not happy at all.”
