Villa manager Unai Emery has been left feeling embarrassed over the decision to take off one Manchester United loanee during Villa’s victory over Man City on Sunday.
Since starting his loan in September, Manchester United player Jadon Sancho has been left waiting to get his chance to shine at Aston Villa.
Although it may not have come how he imagined, the 25-year-old forward received a chance to show fans what he can bring to Villa.
After a relatively impressive loan run at Chelsea, it wouldn’t be unfair to argue that Sancho expected the same thing to happen this season, but instead, the English player has only had two starts, both of which led to a defeat.
On a season-long loan in the West Midlands, Sancho has simply brought forward his disassociation with United in preparation for his contract coming to an end in the summer.
The ’embarrassing’ decision made towards United loanee
Sunday saw Aston Villa face Manchester City at home, and saw Sancho’s chance to make a mark on the team rise. With Villa’s number 10 Emi Buendia sustaining an injury to his foot, Villa manager Unai Emery took to subbing him off for the United Loanee.
Despite coming on in the first half, Sancho was only given 45 minutes of playing time, his chance to impress short-lived.
With Emery taking off Sancho in the 74th minute, it was nothing but obvious that the winger was frustrated with the head coach’s decision.
Although his own call, Emery later admitted that the decision to take off the United loanee was an “embarrassing” treatment of the player.
Logic behind Emery’s decision
Despite admitting that his decision to substitute Sancho didn’t go down well, Aston Villa Coach Emery stood by his decision, arguing there was logic behind it.
As reported by Manchester World, the Spanish manager only planned for Sancho to play a small cameo role within the game. Arguably, the forward is getting more game time due to Buendia’s injury.
Read More: Two reasons why Manchester United are ‘concerned’ with Jadon Sancho’s struggles at Aston Villa
Even though this wasn’t the chance Sancho may not have hoped for, it puts the player in good standing with his only other Premier League start against Sunderland ending in a draw.
Emery went on to talk to TalkSports, telling them, “Yes, he’s (Sancho) not happy”, but he still stands firm with his decision, having done the same with other players in his squad.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.