It seems that many former United legends are not best pleased with how current manager Erik ten Hag has dealt with the Jadon Sancho situation.
For many years, United had the ultimate man manager in Sir Alex Ferguson.
Sir Alex was known for the way in which we knew how to handle all the different personalities at the club and manage each player based on what works best for them.
And it seems that multiple former strikers believe that Sir Alex would not have allowed this situation to crop up in the first place.
Ten Hag has been criticised on the back of his decision to make his Sancho opinions public, with treble winning United legend Andy Cole telling Betfred: “I don’t know. I’ve seen all the reports and I’ve giggled at some of the more ridiculous ones, but it all depends on how people want to perceive this situation.
“If Sir Alex Ferguson ever had a problem with a player, it didn’t leave the dressing room.
“So you can argue that Erik ten Hag has come out and said something negative about his player and he didn’t have to do that. If he didn’t say anything, then nobody’s getting wind of this situation.
“However, now he’s made the situation public, Jadon has now come out to defend himself.”
Cole added: “Manchester United haven’t started the season in a good way and Erik ten Hag didn’t need to create another distraction that the club doesn’t need. It just didn’t need to happen.
“All the publicity surrounding the club at the moment is negative and it can have an adverse reaction on the players because people just expect them to get their heads down and play football, but of course this negativity is going to affect them.”
Strong words there from the former England man. It seems that even those who didn’t necessarily get along with Cole in his playing days seem to be in agreement with him.
It’s well known that Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham weren’t the best of friends – with multiple reports suggesting that the pair didn’t speak to each other while they played under Sir Alex at United. But Sheringham has also been critical of the way that ten Hag has handled this situation.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, the former United and Tottenham Hotspur striker said: “I said at the start of last season that Erik ten Hag had the toughest job in world football. I still think it’s up there because Manchester United fans expect to be winning stuff and when they’re not, the question marks are there.
“It seems there is some disturbance in the camp as well now. He needs to sort that out.
“I’m surprised he came out in the public and questioned Jadon Sancho. He must have his reasons for that and he wants him to liven up.”
When asked if Sir Alex would have taken a similar approach to Ten Hag, Sheringham added: “No, not at all. Very, very rarely anyway.
“The more you can keep things in-house, the more you can control them.
“Now with social media, people are going to have their say. It just brings more hype around the situation. I’m surprised that it has happened.”
And it’s not just former England internationals criticising the manager.
Louis Saha has also claimed that ten Hag was in the wrong for making this whole thing public.
“Sancho and ten-Hag is not a great situation, it’s not what you want to see,” Saha told Paddy Power.
“We’ve seen managers where they open up unnecessarily and this was one of those times. You don’t need to leave out a player and then expose him.
“He’s [Sancho’s] already not doing too well so he’s [ten Hag] putting Sancho’s head down under the water a bit.
“It is a private decision, sometimes the manager has to go public about a player, but in this case it wasn’t necessary.
“Of course, Sancho has to defend himself, he thinks he has done okay physically and commitment wise, and the manager is asking for more.
“It wasn’t necessary from the manager; I feel sorry for both because it’s an unnecessary situation.
“Sometimes those difficult discussions have to be private and even if you shout and you are not happy, you keep that to yourself and not to the journalists because look at the situation now.
“It puts Sancho in a situation where he has to defend himself.
“He’s professional and he wants to prove that he can play for the club, so that’s why he defended himself.”
So that’s three former United players who feel that the manager has done wrong by the player. Whether you agree with ten Hag’s approach or not, it’s not a great look at the club right now and fans will be hoping that the whole messy situation can be put in the background as quickly as possible.
