One-sentence statement from the club
Dispute between ex-BVB star Sancho and Man United escalates
September 14, 2023, 8:22 p.m
Due to allegedly poor training performance, team manager Erik ten Hag removes former Dortmund player Jadon Sancho from the Manchester United squad. He defends himself against the allegations – and is now suspended. It is the continuation of turbulent weeks for the club.
Jadon Sancho became a star at Borussia Dortmund and was directly involved in 89 goals in 104 games. In the summer of 2021, Manchester United paid 85 million euros to be able to sign the England international. A little more than two years later, there is nothing left of the associated euphoria. On the contrary: the relationship between Sancho and the English football record champions has probably reached its lowest point for the time being. Because the conflict between the offensive player and team manager Erik ten Hag has escalated.
As United announced, the 23-year-old is no longer allowed to train with the professional team until further notice. “Jadon Sancho will undertake a personal training program away from the first team until a disciplinary matter is resolved,” United said in a brief statement that consisted of that one sentence alone. Titled “Update on Jadon Sancho”, sent by the communications department. The club is obviously reacting to the wing attacker’s social media post.
The ex-Dortmunder Sancho had previously defended himself with clear words against criticism from ten Hag about his training performance and indirectly accused his coach of lying. “Please don’t believe everything you read!” the 23-year-old wrote on X, formerly Twitter, almost two weeks ago. “I won’t allow people to say completely untrue things, I behaved very well in training this week.”
Ten Hag justified Sancho’s exclusion from the top game at Arsenal (1:3) by saying that he had trained poorly. Sancho vehemently contradicted this. “I think there are other reasons for this that I don’t want to go into. I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time, which isn’t fair,” he wrote. But he doesn’t want to let this influence him and will continue to fight. Sancho claimed that there were “other reasons” for his expulsion, but he did not want to specify them. His post on X has since been deleted.
The Greenwood and Antony cases
For United, this new escalation also means the continuation of troubled weeks – albeit due to events that are completely different to the Sancho case. Initially, the suggested return of Mason Greenwood triggered harsh reactions from their own fans. Greenwood was investigated for attempted rape and assault at the beginning of 2022. However, the British judiciary closed the investigation after a year and justified the decision by saying that after the withdrawal of important witnesses and based on the evidence, there was no realistic prospect of a conviction.
The former England international is now on loan at Spanish first division club FC Getafe. “The club will continue to offer support to Mason and his family during this time of transition,” Man United said in a statement. Meanwhile, fans had called for his immediate dismissal.
The Brazilian Antony is also accused of domestic violence. He is therefore released until further notice, having previously been removed from the national team squad. Antony’s former partner Gabriela Cavallin made the allegations. She said she was physically attacked by him several times during their relationship and described the attacks in detail. The accused denied all allegations in a statement. Antony wants to “cooperate fully with the police to help them find out the truth.” The decision not to return to his club for the time being was made “amicably”.