Jadon Sancho supported as Erik ten Hag slammed for Manchester United treatment

Former Premier League midfielder Mikel John Obi has issued a statement of support for Jadon Sancho, slamming Erik ten Hag for his treatment of the player.

Jadon Sancho has been out of the Manchester United squad since early September after he claimed that Erik ten Hag was scapegoating him after the Dutch manager claimed that Sancho was being left out of the squad due to poor performances.

This has led to a multiple-month-long feud between the player and manager with Sancho refusing to apologise for his words while Ten Hag has banned him from all first-team footballing activities.

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Mikel John Obi believes that Ten Hag’s decision to publically air the issue of Sancho is something that should not have been done and that he supports Sancho’s decision to reply in just as a public fashion.

Speaking on The Obi One podcast, he said: “I think that (calling Sancho out) should be a no-no. Everybody is going about Sancho not apologising, I have a different view on that. My view is that the manager shouldn’t have said what he said in public.

“I wouldn’t come out publicly. When you listen to the ex-United players they’ve all said one thing: When things like this happened before during (Sir Alex) Ferguson, it was dealt with inside the dressing room, he handled it.

“It doesn’t matter how he handled it but he handled it. If his decision was for the player not to be involved anymore, that’s it. You cannot come out publicly and criticise a player and say he wasn’t training really well.

“What do you expect the player to do? You came out publicly, I came out publicly, why do you expect me to apologise? I think it should have been dealt with privately. If he was late to training, he wasn’t performing, there’s a different way to deal with it.”

The former Chelsea midfielder further explained that he believes it should be been dealt with privately because of similar experiences he had in the past with John Terry.

He added: “Back in the day John Terry, this is where he got involved, he got involved in cases like this, went to the manager’s office to have a chat, brought the player because this is a player we need. Sancho is a player you kind of need.”

“There have been a few bad results, the team is not playing well. The manager thought ‘I’m going to find a scapegoat’. I don’t know how this is going to go but I hope they find a way to resolve it because he’s a top player.

“He needs to play, he’s young, 23, and he hasn’t even reached his peak, still far away from that, but I hope they find a way to resolve it and get him back on the pitch, but if not then he has to move on.”