Jadon Sancho's behaviour in Man Utd training and towards team-mates comes to light

Benni McCarthy has shed light on Jadon Sancho's struggles at Manchester United, suggesting that his introverted nature was misinterpreted as having a bad attitude. Sancho was signed from Borussia Dortmund in 2021 for £73million after a lengthy transfer saga.

However, he failed to replicate his form from Germany at Old Trafford, scoring a mere 12 goals during his hugely underwhelming stint with the club.

He later fell out with then-Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag in September 2023 over his commitment levels in training and refused to apologise for publicly criticising the Dutchman's comments on social media. That led to him being frozen out from the first-team squad.

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It also resulted in the 25-year-old being loaned out twice in succession, first to Dortmund and then to Chelsea last season. Although he didn't make a significant impact at Stamford Bridge, he did score in the Europa Conference League final victory.

At the end of the 2024/25 season, Chelsea opted topay United a £5m feerather than fulfilling their obligation-to-buy clause and signing the winger permanently for £25m.

Current United head coach Ruben Amorim has shown no signs of wanting to bring the Englishman back into the fold, indicating that Sancho is likely to leave this summer as a failed signing.

Now, McCarthy, who served as a first-team coach under Ten Hag for two years from the summer of 2022 to 2024, has come out in support of Sancho's character. The South African, currently managing Kenya's national team, says he wasn’t the most sociable team-mate at United and would often head straight home after training, which may have been misconstrued from the outside.

McCarthy told betonlinepromocodes.com: “I couldn’t fault Jadon in training. He brings unbelievable quality, ability and skills. He can make you stop in awe and ask yourself just how he can do things. He brought unmatched quality.

“I think what didn’t help Jadon was that he’s a very closed-off person. He keeps to himself, and from the outside it looked like he wasn’t trying to make friends with his team-mates. He might not have joked around but really he was just quiet, and I don’t think you should judge players on who he gets on with or not.

“Based on his ability and craft, I never saw any problems in his relationships. He was quiet-natured, and so when training is done, he doesn’t stay to talk, he heads home. He’s very private. I think a bit of an introvert, which isn’t the opinion he gets branded with in the press."

However, he went on to comment on Sancho’s main struggles with consistency, adding: “I think that when it came to Erik, he wanted to see Jadon at his best everyday. Monday to Friday, no days off. I think that’s what the manager would expect from his players, and so it’s up to the players to give it to him. If you can’t do that, you’re going to have problems, and I think the differences and problems then surfaced.

“For me, I don’t have a bad thing to say about Jadon. I loved him, he was unbelievable, sometimes he was unplayable. I don’t want to rush to judgement on players if they’re reserved.”

Sancho might be on the verge of a permanent exit from Manchester this summer. Juventus have been linked with the Englishman and reports suggest they could be ready to meet United's valuation of around £25m.

But the Turin-based club are not willing to do the same for Sancho's hefty wage demands, which reportedly exceed £300,000 per week as talks continue with his representatives. A swap deal could be on the cards too

It's claimed that the Italians have offered Douglas Luiz, Tim Weah and Dusan Vlahovic to sweeten a deal for Sancho. United reportedly have not yet responded to that proposal and could prefer straight cash amid attempts to boost Amorim's budget.

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