Former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel has criticised Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag concerning how he has handled the feud with Jadon Sancho.
Sancho has refused to apologise to Ten Hag after publicly debunking the manager’s chastisement, claiming he had been made a scapegoat after being left out of the matchday squad to face Arsenal early last month.
The former Borussia Dortmund gem has not featured for the Red Devils since his feud with Ten Hag began and has subsequently been banished from all first-team facilities.
The Dutch tactician, who has increasingly come under scrutiny following the club’s recent poor run of form, believes Sancho is a negative influence on the rest of the squad and doesn’t want him ruining squad harmony.
While Ten Hag is within his right to protect the unity of the squad and maintain a certain level of discipline and professionalism, not everyone agrees with his method of handling the Sancho feud.
Former Chelsea midfielder, Mikel, who snubbed a move to Man United in favour of the West Londoners back in 2006, has slammed the manager, claiming Sir Alex Ferguson would have dealt with the issue quietly.
“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,” Mikel said on The Obi One podcast.
“I wouldn’t come out publicly. When you listen to the ex-United players they’ve all said one thing: When things like this happen before during 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.”
Sancho’s continued absence from the Man United squad has prompted transfer speculation, with several European clubs plotting a January move for the wantaway star.
A return to Dortmund has been mooted, with Edin Terzic keen on a reunion, while Juventus and Barcelona are among others to have expressed an interest in Sancho.
