After an opening month to the season which has brought great turmoil at Manchester United, the last thing manager Erik Ten Hag will have hoped for was Jadon Sancho's unexpected social media outburst against him.
Sancho arrived at Manchester United for a massive €85 million fee in the summer of 2021, after starring for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga as a teenager.
Manchester City academy product Sancho arrived across the city at Old Trafford with high expectations on his shoulders, and he has largely failed to meet those expectations.
Despite flashes of brilliance and some tidy finishes in big games, it has largely been an underwhelming spell at Manchester United for Sancho, and he now appears to be on his last legs at the club.
Erik Ten Hag explained his decision to leave Sancho out of the squad for United's defeat to Arsenal in early September by noting that the English winger's training performances had been less than impressive.
Sancho then took to social media to discount the accusations of suboptimal training application, and claimed he had been "scapegoated." The 23-year-old has since been placed on a personal training programme away from the first-team squad due to ongoing disciplinary issues, per a club statement.
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Neil Lennon disappointed by Jadon Sancho's Erik Ten Hag comments
It now seems inevitable that Jadon Sancho will leave Manchester United, with the ex-Borussia Dortmund man linked with a move back to Germany, or to Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest, come the January transfer window.
6 August 2023; Jadon Sancho of Manchester United during the pre-season friendly match between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
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Speaking on Premier Sports ahead of Manchester United's meeting with Brighton on Saturday, ex-Celtic captain and manager Neil Lennon slammed Sancho's antics against his manager, and pointed out that manager Erik Ten Hag had previously defended the player when he was enduring difficulties last season.
Lennon said he was disappointed with Sancho's bizarre comments, and said that he trusted Ten Hag's judgement on the player:
For me, they looked after Sancho very well last year when he was going through a bit of a bad time confidence wise. They sent him off to Holland to get mentally and physically fit and took the time out.
He's getting paid a lot of money - even during that period. He's come back - whatever the reason for Ten Hag criticising him for his training application, he seems him day-to-day - who are we to disagree with that?
For Jadon to come out and put that on a public platform, it's not a good look for him and there's always going to be repurcussions from that.
Him saying, 'I've been made a scapegot for a long, long time' - I don't really know what he means by that, but he has not performed anywhere near the level of the player we saw at Dortmund. This is another headache that Ten Hag really doesn't need.
If you ask him questions as to why Sancho isn't in the squad or the team, Ten Hag has come out and been blunt...sometimes these managers are blunt, and it can be misconstrued sometimes. I don't think there's a major issue there [with Ten Hag].
Fellow pundit Kenny Cunningham suggested that Jadon Sancho and his fellow modern pros were too "precious," and Lennon agreed with the former Republic of Ireland international.
It now seems as though it will be hard for Sancho to find a way back at Manchester United, even with more severe off-field issues leaving Antony out of contention for the same right-wing spot in Erik Ten Hag's side for the foreseeable future.
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