Rio Ferdinand believes people should start showing Jadon Sancho more respect after his achievements on loan at Borussia Dortmund.
It was only a matter of time before the English pundits fell for the hype trail surrounding Sancho ahead of Saturday night’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
However, when you look at his stats since returning to Dortmund on loan, they aren’t that impressive.
Sancho made 20 appearances for the Bundesliga side, with six goal contributions (3 goals, 3 assists).
That’s why I feel Ferdinand is trying to push an agenda when he speaks about Sancho. He clearly hasn’t paid much attention to German football since the turn of the year.
Moreover, Ferdinand has been spreading his anti-Ten Hag crap for some time, and this is another example of it.
Sancho had a public falling out with Ten Hag which led to the player being disciplined. The winger never apologised for calling the manager a liar, but Ferdinand suddenly thinks he deserves respect.
“A lot has been said about him, a lot of it negative, and I think it’s about time people really give him a little bit of credit”, Ferdinand told talkSPORT.
“Because I think it’s been a really difficult period for him, he’s been criticised, rightly or wrongly.
“The situation that happened between him and the manager, we can debate who was right and who was wrong.
“But he has been criticised heavily, confidence has been very low, he went into a period of isolation in terms of training away from the squad.
“Now he’s gone away to Dortmund to rebuild himself, as a footballer, as a human being, and he has come out the other side.
“Whether he wins the Champions League or not, what he’s achieved in this short little period of time has to be looked at and you go, ‘You know what? This kid’s got character’.
“He’s got personality, he’s built of the right stuff and I think that’s where he needs credit.”
The fact of the matter is, Sancho hasn’t achieved anything yet.
Sancho’s future is up in the air but I hope United show him the door this summer.
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Would it be so terrible if Sancho shoved it right up Ten Hag’s nose by winning a UCL Winners medal?
Sancho arrived at United as a 21 year old and has never had a real chance to establish himself. Solskjaer was sacked within months of him joining club with the Euros debacle and the abuse it attracted(which was Southgate’s fault) already hanging over him.
He then is one of the few players who started to have a bit of form under Rangnick only to see him leave and then one of Ten Hag’s very first acts is to effectively dump him almost before the season started by recruiting his Ten Hag’s Antony. He’s then sent off to Holland (presumably at Ten Hag’s ‘suggestion’), somewhere that was likely wholly unfamilar to him, whilst Antony gets a free run at the first team spot whilst he is away.
He comes back, gets himself back into the team by which time has already started to misfire (Spurs away, Sevilla, West Ham away, Brighton away and the Cup Final) at the end of Ten Hag’s first season.
In pre-season he’s asked to play the false 9 and seems to do a decent job only to be dumped again by Ten Hag for Rashford and lo and behold then comes what seemed like a piece of opportunistic borderline public bullying at Arsenal by his manager just as Antony’s temporary exclusion from the side after his Brazil incident is about to be lifted. Sancho understandably stands up for himself and is sent away again for his troubles.
I doubt the lad has had more than a couple of months at United where he hasn’t had to worry about untoward external issues and be able to focus on his football and he’s is still just 24. The simple fact he’s actually finding his form again after such shabby treatment at Old Trafford is worthy of a little credit
I’ve got a lot more sympathy for him than that whining boss of his who, whilst his team have unconditionally apologised for the worst season in United’s UCL and EPL era’s history keeps peddling the same false hackneyed excuses whilst refusing to acknowledge whatsoever his major part in United’s terrible season (Van Gaal had a worse injury crisis and his squad did better and VAR benefited United this last season by 5 points) .
No humility towards nor apology from Ten Hag to the fans just pure defiance towards Ineos and disrespect for the badge and the fanbase. ‘I’ll win trophies somewhere else if they don’t want me”.
Well off you pop Erik.
I just hope we are days away from seeing the back of Ten Hag and whoever replaces him actually tries to use Sancho as he should be used because there clearly is a talented player in there if a manager can unlock that talent consistently.
United have been wasting decent young players going back before Zaha and Depay and still now they are wasting virtually every under 25 that is signed directly into the first team squad with the latest seemingly being Mount and if they buy the wrong striker this summer, Hojlund as well. Its got to stop especially given Ratcliffe want to focus on under 25 recruits.
Almost guaranteed you have not watched much Gerfootbsll either. Stats in some cases need to be put in context
Plater unfit of his own doing. Struggles then when is up to pace gets better.
We get it you’re hoping Dortmund lose just to avoid the Jadon was right stories.
8th place tho right