Jadon Sancho has been urged by senior members of Manchester United’s squad to apologise to Erik ten Hag and will be made available for transfer in January if he fails to act on that advice.
When Sancho was left out of the squad for the 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on 3 September Ten Hag said it was because the winger had not met the standards required in training. Soon afterwards Sancho posted on social media that the manager’s explanation was “completely untrue”.
Members of United’s hierarchy have also spoken with Sancho to underline that the matter can be resolved only if he says sorry to Ten Hag. The player has been forced to train with the under-18s after effectively calling Ten Hag a liar and has to change alone because of safeguarding regulations.
United were working with Sancho on his behaviour before he was dropped for the Arsenal game and Ten Hag would be open to reintegrating the 23-year-old into the first-team squad were he to receive an apology, despite the time that has elapsed since the incident. Without an apology, United accept the only solution will be to sell or loan the player who was signed from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £73m in July 2021.
After the Arsenal game, Ten Hag said: “Jadon, on his performances in training we did not select him. You have to reach a level every day at Manchester United and we can make choices in the front line. So for this game he was not selected.”
Sancho responded with a statement that he later deleted. He wrote: “Please don’t believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well 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 timewhich isn’t fair!”
Sancho has struggled to make a consistent impact at Old Trafford. United, 10th in the Premier League and bottom of their Champions League group after losing their opening two fixtures, return to action at Sheffield United on Saturday night.
