Manchester United forwards coach Benni McCarthy has revealed that Jadon Sancho refused to apologise to Erik ten Hag over their fall-out because he believed it would have meant admitting he was lazy and unprofessional.
McCarthy has lifted the lid on the bust-up that led to Sancho being ostracised at United and sent back to Borussia Dortmund on loan in January.
Sancho can have the last laugh on Saturday night when he plays for Dortmund against Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley, a week after Ten Hag won the FA Cup there in what could be his last game in charge.
In September, Sancho claimed he had been made a scapegoat in a social media post and effectively branded Ten Hag a liar over his reasons for leaving the player out of his squad at Arsenal because he had not trained hard enough.
Ten Hag demanded an apology and when Sancho refused, United’s £73million winger was made to train and eat alone for the next four months at Carrington.
McCarthy has described how he tried to mediate but soon realised that Sancho’s background meant he was never going to back down.
“If you’re from the streets, no one wants to apologise,” McCarthy was quoted on Daily Mai. “You admit you are not training well, you are lazy, everything you are accused of. Jadon wasn’t going to have that.
“The manager has a strong character and just said that all he wants is an apology. Jadon thought that he had done nothing wrong. He didn’t see why he had to apologise. Sometimes you have to apologise, because a player will never win against a manager.
“I spoke to Jadon as a coach, as a mentor, as a friend, and as someone who grew up on the streets and knows the code.
“But Jadon just wasn’t seeing it. He said, “I ain’t apologising because if I do, I’m apologising for being lazy, always being late, not giving my best – that’s what I’m apologising for”. Those were his reasons”.
