Erik ten Hag opens door for shock Jadon Sancho return after watching ‘fantastic’ Man Utd loanee star for Dortmund

ERIK TEN HAG has opened the door for the return of Jadon Sancho.

The Manchester United boss exiled Sancho from the first team last September after the player posted a social media message effectively calling the manager a liar.

That came after Ten Hag dropped him for what he called his poor attitude in training.

The £73million winger was left to train alone and with the youth team because he refused to apologise.

He was then loaned back to his former club Borussia Dortmund in January.

But Ten Hag has kept a close eye on his performances.

He has now praised the 24-year-old after he helped the Bundesliga side past Atletico Madrid in the midweek and into the Champions League semi-finals.

Ten Hag said: “Of course, I follow international football and follow the players on loan at other clubs.

“It was a fantastic game, Dortmund against Atletico Madrid.

“It was a great performance from Dortmund and for Jadon it's good news.

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“He made his contribution to the result for Dortmund.”

It is the first sign in a thawing of relations between the two but it is still going to take an apology from Sancho for the matter to be fully resolved and him make a return to Old Trafford.

Ten Hag said: “We know Jadon Sancho is a fantastic football player, so that is not a surprise for us, that is not the issue.”

It was September 3rd last year when Ten Hag surprisingly axed Sancho from his squad.

After the match he revealed it was down to his poor training.

But a furious Sancho responded on social media saying: "Please don't believe everything you read. I will not allow people saying things that [are] completely untrue… I have conducted myself in training very well this week.

"I believe there are other reasons for this matter which I won't go into, I've been a scapegoat for a long time which isn't fair! All I want to do is play football with a smile on my face, and contribute to the team.”

While he took the post down, Ten Hag was furious and demanded an apology that Sancho refused to give.

There was a similar problem last weekend when Alejandro Garnacho liked a posting on ‘X’ having a dig at Ten Hag for substituting him in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.

The 19-year-old has since apologised to the manager for his actions.
Ten Hag said: “Alejandro is a young player, has to learn a lot. He apologised for it and after that we move on.”

Garnacho will start for United on Sunday as they take on Coventry in the FA Cup semi-final.