Since 2017, there have been many conflicting reports surrounding the English winger, with some saying he has a lack of discipline and some saying he is hard working and committed.
Jadon Sancho left Manchester City as a promising winger, who was in desperate search for more game time. He would find this additional game time in the form of Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund. But how well did he do exactly?
In his first season with the club in 2017/2018, Sancho managed to start in 7 of their 34 Bundesliga games. In these games, he managed to score 1 and assist 4 as Dortmund would finish 4th and qualify for the Champions League.
The next season was even better for Sancho as he would start in 26 of their 34 Bundesliga games and would register 12 goals and 18 assists as Dortmund would finish just 2 points short off Bayern Munich at the top.
This form made Sancho one of the most sought after talents with Manchester United breaking the bank for the winger in the summer of 2021 when they paid £75 million for his talents.
From joining Manchester United however, his goals and assists had dropped as in 20 Premier League starts throughout his first campaign, the then 22 year old registered 3 goals and 3 assists. This was all in a struggling Manchester United side who finished 6th, thirteen points off of 4th place Spurs. During this time, there was also a shift in managers as Ole Gunnar Solskjær was sacked early in the season and German coach Ralf Rangnick was appointed for the remainder of the season.
For the 2022/2023 season, Erik Ten Hag was appointed manager. Things started off well initially as Sancho put out good performances in pre-season, including playing a pivotal role in Ten Hag's first victory over Liverpool. However, from here, things were anything but smooth...
In December of 2022, Erik Ten Hag sent Jadon Sancho to trusted coaches in the Netherlands, with the Man United coach explaining how the winger needed to work on a "combination of physical but also mental" issues. This was whilst the rest of his teammates were in a camp in Spain. This move by Ten Hag was seen as a disciplinary caution as the winger had also been performing poorly in training and turning late to these training essions on multiple occasions. Sancho would rejoin the squad once again in February 2023 but would endure a rather forgettable end to the campaign.
This season however is when the combustable elements of Ten Hag and Sancho semed to fully explode. Ten Hag gave Sancho substitute appearances in the first three games of the premier league season. These would be his last minutes on the pitch for Manchester United this season.
Erik Ten Hag left Jadon Sancho out of the squad for their trip to the Emirates on September 3rd. When asked by the media why, Ten Hag cited poor performances in training as the primary reason for the absence. Sancho would then take to twitter in an explosive rant in which he said, ""I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!”
During the international break, Ten Hag and Sancho met in the hope of sorting out these differences. Ten Ha tried to explain his point to Sancho, showing him videos of their training sessions for reasons as to why he said what he said on Sancho's performances. Sancho would delete the aforementioned tweet then afterwards. However, it is said that Sancho refused to apologise to his manager.
As a result, Manchester United released a statement which confirmed that Sancho would “remain on a personal training programme away from the first-team group, pending resolution of a squad discipline issue”. In January he would finalise a move on loan back to Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of the season.
This reported behaviour of Sancho seemed to be a surprise to some, such as his former manager Ralf Rangnick. Speaking to Sky Germany, Rangnick was asked on Sancho's discipline and he responded by stating "In the six months I had him, there wasn't a single discipline problem." The former Manchester United manager would continue by saying "On the contrary, he was a calm and pleasant guy." Another person who recently spoke up in defence of Sancho and his discipline is Borussia Dortmund CEO Joachim Watzke. Speaking to SkyDE, Watzke said "Jadon Sancho has no discipline problem at all." He would then continue from there and say "I have no idea who invented that story."
However, there was previous behavioural issues prior to Jadon Sancho joining Borussia Dortmund. Sancho was reported as being "impatient" by academy coaches at Manchester City and was also in first team plans for Pep Guardiola as he wanted Sancho to be a future starter for the club. However, when Sancho did not want to take that challenge due to the plephora of attacking options bought by Guardiola, he also rejected a new contract. He was then taken off of the re-season tour in the United States and refused to go to training before signing for Borussia Dortmund.
With these conflicting reports on Jadon Sancho's discipline, it is time for the football world to see whether he can rehabilitate his image and become the player that he showed previously in Dortmund he can be.
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