Manchester United must share the blame for Jadon Sancho’s current problem

Jadon Sancho has been a huge talking point of Manchester United’s international break after his post-Arsenal statement.

Jadon Sancho claimed that he was being “scapegoated” after Erik ten Hag revealed that the player had been left out of Manchester United‘s squad that lost 3-1 to Arsenal due to poor training levels.

This sparked an onslaught of both fan debate and insider information being released surrounding Jadon Sancho and his training habits, with The Athletic claiming that tardiness issues have been present throughout Sancho’s time at Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, and now Manchester United.

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Sancho has since deleted his statement from his social media accounts, but the accusation still lingers, although Sancho and Ten Hag are said to have held face-to-face talks on Monday afternoon, with more scheduled to take place.

Although it is easy to blame the player for the problems that have arisen, the club must also take partial responsibility – just as a good company should encourage a culture of positive change and help their employees be the best they can be, any club should do the same with their players.

At United, it has been turmoil for many years – with the latest instability coming straight from the top with the Glazer family refusing to conclude their potential sale, as well as problems relating to Mason Greenwood’s saga and Antony stepping back from the squad to fight domestic abuse allegations in Brazil.

The Athletic report has explained that there have been questions surrounding the “level of pastoral care” that the club offered Sancho after he moved from Dortmund to United, with some suggesting that United perhaps misjudged how mature Sancho was at the time – Sancho had only just turned 21.

This is not to absolve Sancho of blame for what has happened. The pattern of behaviour across all three clubs highlights a fundamental problem which must be targeted and solved, but a young man cannot do that by himself.

At age 21, most young English people are either in university or just starting jobs, and require a lot of guidance, whereas many young football players are expected to be and act like fully grown adults due to the influence they have.

Yes, Sancho must play his part to improve and understand his role in both the past and the future, but so should the club – and if they want to help Sancho, they must do their part, just as he must, too.