Lid lifted on Jadon Sancho’s refusal to apologise to Erik ten Hag

Manchester United outcast Jadon Sancho refused to apologise to Erik ten Hag amid concerns it would have meant admitting he was “lazy” and “not training well”, according to the club’s forwards coach.

Benni McCarthy has lifted the lid on the fall-out that led to Sancho being exiled by Ten Hag and subsequently loaned to Borussia Dortmund in January.

Sancho will be out to prove a point to Ten Hag on Saturday when Dortmund face Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley and end a season that had torrid beginnings on a huge high.

The England forward had accused Ten Hag of making him a “scapegoat” and effectively lying over the reasons for being dropped from United’s squad against Arsenal in September.

Ten Hag demanded an apology from Sancho for his furious social media post but the £73 million winger refused and was subsequently ordered to train and eat alone at United’s Carrington training base for the next four months before being sent back to Dortmund on loan.

Now, former Blackburn and Porto striker McCarthy – who serves on Ten Hag’s backroom staff – has revealed how he tried to help resolve the situation but suggested Sancho was not the sort of character who was going to back down.

“If you’re from the streets, no one wants to apologise,” McCarthy told South African radio station 947 Joburg.

“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.”

McCarthy said he tried to mediate. “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,” he said.

“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.

“I spoke to the manager and I said to him that you know the delicacy, and I think Jadon feels that if he apologises then he’s going to be classed as someone who doesn’t train hard, doesn’t work hard, that everything that was said against him was true.”

With Ten Hag’s future in the balance as he waits for the outcome of United’s season review, McCarthy is also waiting to discover whether he will remain at Old Trafford. McCarthy is out of contract next month and would like to stay at the club but does not know what will happen.

“I don’t know if I’m going to stay or leave,” McCarthy said. “I learned a lot at Man United working with Erik, he’s one of the smartest managers I’ve known.”