Rio Ferdinand has expressed his concerns about Erik ten Hag’s handling of Jadon Sancho, suggesting that the Manchester United manager may have “embarrassed” the winger without fully understanding the risks involved.
Following a public argument with Ten Hag over his training intensity, Sancho is currently working out apart from the first team.
After United’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal, during which the winger did not travel to North London with the team, Ten Hag made no secret of his displeasure with Sancho.
Ferdinand is concerned that the 23-year-old Sancho, who later deleted his response to Ten Hag and joined United for £73 million from Borussia Dortmund in 2021, may not be able to make it back to first-team training.
Ferdinand talked about the circumstance with Five on Vibe, asking, “To be kicked out of the squad, what’s going on? Is there a private matter involving the management and the player? Or is he actually failing to train in the manner that his boss desires?
“It seems like the management has explored every option to bring out the best in Jadon Sancho. Jadon, I think, would acknowledge, hasn’t yet lived up to the billing and the price.
“The manager might have believed, ‘This is my final opportunity.
Since I am unable to persuade him further, I will make it public and watch to see if his pride and the resulting public humiliation would cause him to declare, “I’m not accepting this,” and “I’ll come back with a performance.”
“He used Rashford for it. At the time, Rashford served as our team’s talisman, scoring all of our goals while playing hot and hotter than before. He was demoted by the manager for arriving late to a meeting, which is a minor offense in most people’s eyes. You might feel pressured and think, “Wait a minute, I’m the man here,” which would increase your ego and pride. If United had lost that game, the clamor would have been unbearable, but everything worked out.
“I just think there have been players who were publicly questioned or dealt with subtly – like Wan-Bissaka, who has made a remarkable comeback from being almost forgotten. I think the manager’s decision to go public with Jadon was a significant one, and I wonder if the manager truly understood the risks involved.”
I back the manager ,if sancho was as good as we would have to believe he would be showing it on the pitch, the manager gave him time off to sort out his problems , okay media and people like ex players who never had media attention like players of today have to suffer , players that made mistakes and act as if they were good little boys , another problem today is a player that’s paid Mickey Mouse money can refuse to play and get paid for it , with all the injuries at United I hope non of them are using an injury as an excuse ,we are all experts and have opinions like me , I thought United should have bought Madison who was cheaper than mount , mount was a great player once but is injury prone and is injured now , and I would have made mctominey a centre forward , so you see we all think we are managers so it’s up to the players to want to play and go all out to prove how good they are and back the manager , united are still the biggest club even though they are not at the high table anymore , a club the media and ex players like run down every chance they can , I know it will take years and years for United to be great again as they are so far behind a lot of clubs in the premier ship ,