Manchester United return to pre-season training this morning and all eyes will be on whether Jadon Sancho will be among that returning party of players.
Sancho publicly fell out with manager Erik ten Hag at the start of last season and the England international winger publicly accused the United manager of lying.
The 24-year-old was banished from the first team and neither party has been willing to resolve the matter up until now. With Ten Hag staying on as manager, Sancho’s future looks bleak at Old Trafford.
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That being said, a positive loan spell with Borussia Dortmund during the second half of last season, where he helped Die Schwarzgelben reach the final of the Champions League, has left some United fans pondering whether Sancho still has a future at the club.
Prior to his fallout with Ten Hag, Sancho had largely flattered to deceive in his first two seasons at United but his loan spell back in Germany has offered some food for thought.
The question now for United is whether they change tack and welcome Sancho back into the first team fold, or whether Ten Hag stays firm and continues to banish him from the first team.
As such, our Manchester United reporters at the Manchester Evening News have offered their views on how United should deal with the Sancho situation.
Samuel Luckhurst
Sancho tried to hide from the cameras when he returned to Carrington in September and it would be understandable if he kept his head down again today.
He embarked on an online victory lap after Borussia Dortmund reached the Champions League final. Erik ten Hag turned up at Wembley in the FA Cup final. Sancho didn’t for Dortmund against Real Madrid. Sancho does not have the mentality to succeed at United and that was clear during his first two seasons at the club.
United cannot attempt to rebuild bridges with a player who publicly accused the manager of lying. Sancho has never apologised for that and if he did now it would be belated and not necessarily contrite. United want to sell Sancho and he wants to go. Let him. He should continue to train away from the first team.
Tyrone Marshall
The situation between Ten Hag and Sancho is unchanged so surely his training set-up has to remain unchanged. That means continuing to train on his own, to get changed on his own and to eat on his own.
Ten Hag laid down a marker in the way he dealt with Sancho and whether you felt it right or not, he has to show he is uncompromising with it now. The winger could certainly help to make up the numbers this week in first-team training, but this is more important than that.
Sancho’s time at the club is done. He won’t play again and he won’t play in pre-season. A permanent departure suits every party and it’s just a case of ticking off the days alone at Carrington until a deal is done.
George Smith
As Tyrone has stated above, the situation between Ten Hag and Sancho remains unchanged, meaning it is highly likely he will continue to train away from the rest of the first-team squad. The latter has refused to apologise to the United manager and it should be in everyone’s best interests to find him a new permanent residency this summer.
United want to get him off the books and you cannot blame them for doing so. His relationship with the manager is broken and he has done very little to justify the £72.9million United splashed out on him three years ago, failing to impress under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Ten Hag.
United need to raise funds through player sales this summer and there cannot possibly be a better place to start than attempting to shift a player that publicly accused the manager of lying. He has failed to issue an apology for his actions almost a year ago and welcoming him back into the camp would risk undoing all of the hard work Ten Hag has put in to change the dressing room culture at Old Trafford. He needs to be sold.
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