Mikel blasts Ten Hag over Jadon Sancho saga
Former Super Eagles Captain John Obi Mikel, has taken a swipe at Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag following his ongoing face off with Jadon Sancho. Obi came short of telling Ten Hag that he lacks maturity, insisting that former Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson would have handled the raging matter between the coach and one of his players differently and maturely.
As a result of the squabbles, it emerged yesterday that the United boss is looking to ofload Sancho in January if he refuses to apologise to Ten Hag for his statements after he was dropped from the matchday squad against Arsenal.
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This comes after the 23-year-old was banned from using all first-team facilities at Carrington after he claimed he was being made a ‘scapegoat’ in an online retort. The Nigeria international and former Premier League believes the move is an over kill and not the way to go.
‘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,’ he told 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 happen before during [Sir Alex] Ferguson, it was dealt with inside the dressing room, he handled it.
Jadon Sancho in face off with Coach Ten Hag.
‘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.’
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Mikel, who turned down a move to the Red Devils in 2006 in favour of Chelsea, added: ‘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.
‘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.’
Ex-Man United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic recently questioned whether Ten Hag has fully adapted to life at the club a year on from joining from Ajax because of his treatment of ‘big stars’.
‘Coming from Ajax to United as he did is a big difference. I have been in both clubs. You have a different kind of discipline,’ he told Piers Morgan Uncensored.
‘Ajax is a talented club. They have the best talents in the club. They don’t have big stars. What is the experience of this coach? Young talents, he comes to United, it is a different mentality.