Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has slammed Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag over his treatment of Jadon Sancho.
Despite Ten Hag insisting that he and Sancho had reconciled their differences during pre-season, his statements proved questionable as the player was not included in the United squad for the two opening Premier League matches of the campaign, against Fulham and Brighton Hove Albion.
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Sancho and Ten Hag infamously fell out in September 2023 when the coach publicly stated that he left Sancho out of a game against Arsenal due to the winger not showing enough in training.
The 24-year-old quickly took to social media to hit back at the coach, arguing that he was being made a "scapegoat". This led to a four-month standoff between them, with the attacker being frozen out of the first team unless he made a public apology to the Dutch tactician, to which he did not oblige.
This culminated in Sancho leaving the club during the January transfer window to join his former employers Borussia Dortmund on a six-month loan deal.
During that period, the English star revived his football reputation, resulting in links with clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, and Juventus.
In the end, Sancho joined United rivals Chelsea on loan with an obligation to make the deal permanent at the end of the season.
However, ex-Liverpool manager Klopp believes Ten Hag should have handled the situation differently given that Sancho joined the Red Devils for a lofty fee of €85 million (R1.6 billion) from Dortmund in 2021.
Klopp told The Telegraph: "If the whole world loses trust and faith in the player, the manager has to be the one behind the player.
"I cannot just buy into that 'he's useless', like other clubs did by the way — buying a player for £80 million and then sending him out on loan!"
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In 83 appearances for United, Sancho registered 12 goals and six assists, which is a far cry from his formidable record of 53 goals and 67 assists in 158 games for his previous team BVB, as per Transfermarkt.