Man Utd isolates Sancho

Man Utd's statement on September 14 also means that Sancho will not be allowed to practice with his teammates indefinitely. That also means he cannot play, similar to the case of teammate Antony.

Sancho, on X - the social network formerly known as Twitter, once implied that coach Erik ten Hag lied, after he was not registered for the match against Arsenal on September 3. The Dutch coach explained that Sancho's training did not meet the requirements. The English striker wrote: "I will not allow people to say things that are completely untrue. I have trained very well last week, but I do not want to say the real cause of this problem."

Immediately after Sancho posted, Ten Hag tried to push him to another team, and several clubs from Saudi Arabia showed interest, according to The Athletic. Man Utd offered 81 million USD, slightly lower than the amount they spent with Dortmund to recruit him two years ago. However, Sancho and his representative did not want to negotiate a departure. Instead, he and defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka went to the US to celebrate basketball player John Wall's birthday.

Sancho took a three-month break from playing at Man Utd last season, but at that time Man Utd did not announce the reason. Coach Ten Hag also just said that this striker needs time to stabilize his mind and body to compete. But after Sancho publicly criticized the coach earlier this season, he was no longer protected even though he deleted the post criticizing Ten Hag.

Sancho also had disciplinary problems at Dortmund, when he often arrived late to training sessions or tactical meetings. The assistant coach of the German club at that time, Edin Terzic, sometimes had to go to Sancho's room to knock on the door and take him to practice. Man Utd is said to have misunderstood Sancho's maturity level, as he went to Germany to play football when he was 17 years old.

Without Sancho, Antony or Mason Greenwood all for non-professional reasons, Ten Hag is lacking options on the right wing. Ahead of them are two difficult matches against away team Brighton in round five of the Premier League, and host Bayern Munich in the first round of the Champions League group stage.