Jose Mourinho offers opinion on fallout between Jadon Sancho and Manchester United boss Ten Hag before Champions League final
Jose Mourinho feels Jadon Sancho and Erik ten Hag's clash at Manchester United was multifactorial. The English winger left the Red Devils for Borussia Dortmund on loan in January due to a spat with his manager.
Mourinho spoke ahead of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Dortmund at Wembley tonight (June 1). The Portuguese coach was asked on TNT Sport about Sancho's United issues:
"For sure, the kid made mistakes. But also, the manager was not able to get the best out of him. As a player, we know his talent. There's no doubt about it."
Sancho is starting for BvB tonight and has enjoyed a career renaissance at Signal Iduna Park. The England international struggled throughout his time at Manchester United after joining from the Bundesliga side in 2021 for £72 million.
Mourinho touched on his difficulties at Old Trafford by alluding to players needing to be understood:
"What happened at (Manchester United)... If I look to my own history, sometimes I failed with players. I couldn't create the right empathy, understand the player DNA... Normally it is multifactorial – it's not [just] the manager, the player, the family, the agent, the club. Normally, it's multifactorial."
Sancho and Ten Hag fell out over the Englishman's training performance. The Red Devils boss dropped him from a matchday squad and publicly explained he hadn't performed well enough in training.
The 24-year-old hit back at Ten Hag's comments with a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter). He accused the Dutchman of making him a scapegoat and he was banished from United's first team for months after refusing to apologize.
"It comes with big pressure" - Darren Bent urges Jadon Sancho to leave Manchester United permanently
Darren Bent weighed in on the debate over the player's future at Manchester United. The former Premier League striker feels the English winger will be better off joining Dortmund permanently once his loan expires next month (via talkSPORT):
“I know it must be incredibly difficult, I never played for a club the size of Manchester United, that is a juggernaut, it comes with big pressure playing for that club, sometimes things don’t fit, you have got to go back to a place where you know what you are doing, you feel comfortable, you are confident, and that’s at Dortmund."
Sancho has impressed back at BvB, posting three goals and as many assists in 20 games across competitions. He struggled with just 12 goals and six assists in 82 games at Manchester United.
Bent advised the former Manchester City academy youngster to snub a return to Old Trafford:
"If they can maybe make a deal to keep him there, I would think about staying there for a couple of more seasons, get my confidence back and then go again. But trying to go back to United after this little period, no."
Sky Sports Germany reports that Dortmund can't afford the attacker but could try to seal another loan deal. He has two years left on his contract with the Red Devils.