John Obi Mikel slams Erik ten Hag for 'throwing Jadon Sancho under the bus' at Manchester United
The ex-Chelsea and Stoke City midfielder says Sancho may reach a point where he leaves Man Utd thanks to Erik ten Hag.
Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has taken aim at Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag for his handling of the fallout with Jadon Sancho, accusing the Dutchman of “throwing him under the bus”.
Sancho remains exiled from the first team for not apologising to Ten Hag following his social media statement that hit back at the manager’s decision to leave him out of the squad that faced Arsenal.
Sancho accused Ten Hag of lying and claimed he's been a “scapegoat for a long time”. The Manchester Evening News understands that the 23-year-old is open to an exit with Ten Hag standing by his press conference comments.
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Mikel - who rebuffed a United move at the last minute in favour of a Chelsea transfer in 2006 - slammed Ten Hag for his actions and made a comparison to his playing days at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho.
Speaking on The Obi One podcast, he said: “I think that [calling Sancho out] should be a no-no. Everybody is going about Sancho not apologising, I have a different view on that. My view is that the manager shouldn't have said what he said in public.
"I wouldn't come out publicly. When you listen to the ex-United players they've all said one thing: When things like this happen before during [Sir Alex] Ferguson, it was dealt with inside the dressing room, he handled it.
"It doesn't matter how he handled it but he handled it. If his decision was for the player not to be involved anymore, that's it. You cannot come out publicly and criticise a player and say he wasn't training really well.
"What do you expect the player to do? You came out publicly, I came out publicly, why do you expect me to apologise? I think it should have been dealt with privately. If he was late to training, he wasn't performing, there's a different way to deal with it.”
He added: "Back in the day John Terry, this is where he got involved, he got involved in cases like this, went to the manager's office to have a chat, brought the player, because this is a player we need. Sancho is a player you kind of need."
Sancho was pictured in the US attending the party of an NBA star just days after his social media statement. Responding to this, Mikel added: "I'm not sitting here trying to defend Jadon but the manager has come out and thrown him under the bus.
"There have been a few bad results, the team is not playing well. The manager thought 'I'm going to find a scapegoat'. I don't know how this is going to go but I hope they find a way to resolve it because he's a top player.
"He needs to play, he's young, 23, he hasn't even reached his peak, still far away from that, but I hope they find a way to resolve it and get him back on the pitch, but if not then he has to move on.”