Erik ten Hag vs Sancho | Sancho back in full training

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Highfather_24 said:
I agree. But it was naive from ETH, we all know how the british media hang around like sharks for any piece of negativity around United. Every small thing is blown out of proportion, and we could do without more negative press.

And yeah, if selling him was a issue this summer, boy do we have problems now.
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I don’t think a United manager should give a flying f**k what the British media thinks. I don’t ever get the impression klopp or pep hold back if they want to rant about something.

Once you start pandering to those rag paper leeches, they’ve got you.

As others have said, the issue isn’t what ETH said, it’s how the player reacted.
 
DickDastardly said:
Don't recall Jose doing it? Did you live under a rock while Mourinho managed us?
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I was not talking about managers throwing players under the bus. That happens all the time obviously, and not what ETH did with Sancho. Moreso about comments re training issues leading to being dropped. I'm not claiming a perfect memory, and god knows I forget everything, but I dont remember something like this happening in the last few years. Maybe it does, idk. But the larger point was about how we should have handled this inhouse, and not given the media more ammo with negativity.
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
Once you start pandering to those rag paper leeches, they’ve got you.
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ETH told them exactly what they wanted to hear. The media always wants negative drama. That sells. Why do you think every press conf starts with a question about Maguire/Sancho/Antony etc?

So not pandering would be giving a boring answer, and defending your players in public, like SAF used to do(mostly).
 
Highfather_24 said:
I agree. But it was naive from ETH, we all know how the british media hang around like sharks for any piece of negativity around United. Every small thing is blown out of proportion, and we could do without more negative press.

And yeah, if selling him was a issue this summer, boy do we have problems now.
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I don't think you should be irritated by any of the media's negative reports.

No other club in the UK generates more clicks than United. So of course they need to either make stuff up, stir shite or just focus on negative news.

It only reinforces the fact that we are the biggest club in the UK and the top 3-4 in the world regardless of the on-field performances. News articles (incl negative ones) contribute to that infamous 1.1 billion followers and their clicks (Actually number of United fans is 475 million.)

Our sponsors love it and are willing to pay record $$ for these followers.


Hated, adored, never ignored!
 
Highfather_24 said:
ETH told them exactly what they wanted to hear. The media always wants negative drama. That sells. Why do you think every press conf starts with a question about Maguire/Sancho/Antony etc?

So not pandering would be giving a boring answer, and defending your players in public, like SAF used to do(mostly).
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Like ETH does(mostly)?
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
As others have stated , other managers have in the past said similar things. People are making an issue because we are so short on players and cause he’s a supposedly important player (or at least was meant to be).

I remember Jose trying it with Shaw and the player didn’t hide from it or whinge on social media. If you are a manager and have tried absolutely everything to get the player to buck up, what do you expect?

It’s not like ETH came in and straight away had a go at Sancho, he’s been very patient with the player. I’d also imagine he would of been happy to let the player go in the summer but that didn’t happen for whatever reason.

Considering United are crap at selling failed signings , what else could ETH do? Humour his poor training? Humour him taking months off to find himself?

If nothing else, weak minded players like Sancho might thing twice about joining United. Any professional, hard working, ambitious footballer wouldn’t have a problem with what ETH said because they wouldn’t be unprofessional so wouldn’t be in danger of it.
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selective memory, that guy
He obviously has blinders on unless his favourite player is in the news.

The Shaw-Jose call out was a great example, he didn't sugar coat the problem and straight up said Shaw was overweight which is why Shaw has gotten the "fat b*st*rd" chants, started dying down now but I've still heard them from time to time.

Pogba, another publically called out, Fergie on Beckham, Rooney etc.

"Hardly ever see managers.." what a load of waffle eh!
 
Hester_manc said:
ETH created this conflict. There was no need to be that harsh on Sancho public. I fully understand, why Sancho did not want people to question his desire to do his best. Stupid own goal by ETH - he could have handled this in a better way to begin with.
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Harsh Your mom still blows on your wounds doesnt she? Jesus Christ
 
Drainy said:
Like ETH does(mostly)?
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Sure. Just think the timing was off, and not sure if this situation will benefit us in anyway. Not in the transfer market for sure, and cant say if this is good for squad morale right now either.

sglowrider said:
Hated, adored, never ignored!
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True, they say any press is good press. Crazy how all our public problems revolve around the RW position.
 
It’s like anything - if the person themselves is not willing to make the most of their talent or make the changes required then no amount of third party action is going to change that. If the exposure at United is too much then there are plenty of other places to go but Sancho may be surprised at the level he is offered if he were to move, clubs across the board are getting more wise as to who they sign and a name isn’t enough most of the time now
 
Hester_manc said:
ETH created this conflict. There was no need to be that harsh on Sancho public. I fully understand, why Sancho did not want people to question his desire to do his best. Stupid own goal by ETH - he could have handled this in a better way to begin with.
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He got asked a question and he answered it, there was nothing wrong with what he said. Other players would have pulled their socks up and proved the manager wrong. Sancho decided to make a song and dance about it. How anyone can blame ETH is beyond me.
 
Something isn't right with him. You won't find professionals getting addicted to football games. They play for fun but not to replace their career. The reason why football games exist are because of us non footballers. We can only be good at it virtually.

The same way most professional guitarists don't play guitar hero.
 
Judas said:
Yes. Wasn't Ozil addicted?

I'm guessing this level of Fifa playing is just normal for Sancho, and its only getting picked up now due to the stuff going on.
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It sounds like he's got a problem to me. Needs to mature very fast also, it's his career thats at risk here.
 
PFA getting involved now. I'm not 100% in agreement with how ETH is handling it, but it's hardly difficult to just apologise - which he supposedly is refusing to do.
 
Laurencio said:
PFA getting involved now. I'm not 100% in agreement with how ETH is handling it, but it's hardly difficult to just apologise - which he supposedly is refusing to do.
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With what we actually know transpired, why would ETH apologize?
 
People saying the manager created the problem or shouldn't have told the press the actual reason Sancho wasn't in the team seem to be missing one key thing. Sancho would still have Tweeted something out no matter what was said. He's had that in the drafts ready to fire out when needed so even if the press got a "no comment" or "he's injured" in the press conference that Tweet was coming.
 
giggs-beckham said:
Can one be addicted to video gaming?
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Absolutely, and I think gaming addiction is a serious issue. Might well be that Sancho has developed this issue, as a byproduct of how he is living and what his mental state has been.
I wonder, is he living alone? Does he have family or a partner participating in his daily live?
There was reports about a problematic lack of 'pastoral care' at United with regards to embedding signings and helping them with their lives.

I do not mean to excuse unprofessional behaviour or an unprofessional lifestyle. But I can also envisage how easily things can go wrong if a 21/22/23 year old young guy is tasked with organizing a private life himself, moving cities, countries, apartments, jobs.
Honestly, if you sign a young player for 80m € because he is crazily talented, and the club he was at before had someone picking him up from the hotel room to be on time for team meetings - you either say that is a red flag and do not sign him. Or you fecking get someone to fetch him from his hotel room. How hard can it be to pay a couple of weekly k on top of the 200k+ (whatever it really is) of player wages to try to take care of the player's life organization issues.

The horse has left the barn now, and it is hard to paint Sancho as a victim. But I think it as a bottom line, it is a monumental failure of the club to not have managed to get the best out of such an immense talent.
I maintain that he was a great signing at the time, the fee was not too high, the club did nothing wrong there. His massive quality, his fantastic performances were real. No need to be revisionist about that.
But quite apparently we messed up bedding him in and somehow managed to ruin him completely, and that is a tragedy. I realize people will go, players are not babies, they are paid millions and millions, etc. Yes, but maybe to some extent some players are babies? Babies who are amazing at football and therefore paid millions? Why not spoonfeed him some mush if what you get in return is an amazing player?
 
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In hindsight the red flags was already there in his debut for us. We were cruising against Leeds when he came on. Completely open game with absolutely no pressure - the perfect opportunity for a player like him to showcase some of his skills that made us buy him. Instead he decided to casually stroll about, playing simple, short (back-) passes. And he has pretty much done the same since, bar some rare highlights.

Really thought he was too talented to fail. How wrong was I.
 
crossy1686 said:
How should Ten Hag be handling it out of interest?
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Get him in a meeting immediately and talk it out, rather than let it drag in for weeks in the hope Sancho makes an effort to apologise.

Don't get me wrong, Sancho seems to be being a massive fanny but Hag is the boss and (in my opinion) should be taking this by the scruff of the neck and sorting it out one way or the other.
 
tenpoless said:
Something isn't right with him. You won't find professionals getting addicted to football games. They play for fun but not to replace their career. The reason why football games exist are because of us non footballers. We can only be good at it virtually.

The same way most professional guitarists don't play guitar hero.
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No idea if he's addicted to FIFA or even any games at all but it's perfectly possible. There are loads of players who spend too much time gaming, including on FIFA. Not sure what they were playing but Auba, Ozil and O. Dembele have all been reported as being so into gaming it's impacted on their professional career to some extent.

That's not to say this is his problem but it's pretty common knowledge that plenty of footballers play football games at lot.
 
He might be addicted to gaming. He definitely isn't motivated or happy here in general. I doubt he likes the 'style' of football here either but that's no excuse obviously
 
Bastian said:


Is that really enough? If he's having to be pushed into it by teammates he obviously isn't seeing anything wrong with his behaviour and unprofessional approach to training, whilst being likely in the top 5 best paid players at the club.

An apology will have to be genuine and I can't imagine it will be. Get Murtough to work and sort a move in January.
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The only plus is at least his team mates are trying to bring him around rather than siding with him.

The bigger risk with this was always that ETH could lose respect of other players in the process. Same reason he has to stick to his guns now because otherwise its a queue for others to dick about and know they'll eventually get away with it.


Jev said:
Honestly feels a little draconian that ETH is allowed to publicly out Sancho as a poor trainer and Sancho isn't allowed to say anything in his defence and must be forced to change his opinion (or pretend to change his opinion). Surely an open conversation where both sides could air their grievances and explain their stance could be a place to start.
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I think it was a dumb move by ETH amd xan maybe understand the initial reaction, but this is giving Sancho the benefit of doubt in not knowing the full background.

Where we're at now is ETH is the manager and Sancho isn't. ETH is still there doing his job and Sancho isn't.

The manager has to be the one in charge. SAF, Pep, Klopp etc. wouldn't have a meeting with a player to air their differences. You either do what the manager wants or go play somewhere else. Either that or every player in the squad has a licence to feck about/not listen.


duffer said:
SeIt all seems so needlessly dramatic. Just get them in a room together to talk.
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Same as above. I think at this point the authority of the manager is more important than appeasing one player. Especially one who's been rubbish for 2 years.
 
I do think Sancho will have some regrets in a few years.

The guys a millionaire and will find another club so it's not the end for him. Does seem to have an attitude problem though that I believe will stop him ever being a truly world class player.
 
He's a grown man on 300k a week playing FIFA until the early hours when he's got training for Manchester United in the morning. I know footballers aren't known for being the brightest bunch, but it's hard to work with someone that thick and immature. He obviously needs to be somewhere far less pressured and a lot more accommodating to his gaming induced tardiness. feck the cnut off as quickly as possible.
 
noodlehair said:
Same as above. I think at this point the authority of the manager is more important than appeasing one player. Especially one who's been rubbish for 2 years.
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I agree that the manager should stamp his authority on this but that's why I think an immediate meeting would be best. Hag can find out exactly what Sancho's problem is, Sancho gets a chance to explain himself and then the boss decides what to do.
 
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