Chelsea legend John Mikel Obi slammed Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag for his handling of Jando Sancho case at the Old Trafford-based outfit.
The Dutch manager called out publicly Sancho for the low level he shows during training sessions with the Red Devils after the club’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal on September 3.
The coach’s say irritated Sancho who quickly reacted on social media and denied Erik ten Hag telling people “not to believe in everything they hear” about him.
His reaction did not pleased Ten Hag who decided with Man United approval to drop him from the club’s first squad.
So far, the 23-year old has been training with the youth side and Mikel Obi sees the situation as unfair to the former Dortmund star as Ten Hag should have told him what to do in private and not in public.
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“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”, the former Super Eagles captain said on “The Obi One Podcast”.
“I wouldn’t come out publicly. When you listen to the ex-United players they’ve all said one thing: When things like this happened 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.
“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, and 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.”