FALL AND RISE OF JADON PUTS ERIK IN A SPOT
IT might just be a greater comeback than Lazarus on steroids.
Less than five months ago Jadon Sancho wasn’t even allowed to train with the Manchester United squad.
Now he’s looking forward to playing in the biggest club game in world football.
Under normal circumstances, the prospect of having to return to England would fill Sancho with dread, given his broken relationship with Manchester United.
But these are not normal circumstances.
Heaven
And on June 1, Sancho will find himself in London for the Champions League final with Borussia
Dortmund.
The saying goes that you should ‘never go back’. But Sancho’s love affair with Dortmund appears to be a marriage made in heaven, because as loan moves go, the one he made back to the Bundesliga outfit from United in January appears to be one of the best in footballing history.
Dortmund rode to the rescue of Sancho and reached out to him in his darkest hours.
And he’s repaid them in full, with a string of stunning performances to help the German outfit stun European football with a place in the greatest club game of all at Wembley.
In the two semi-finals against PSG, Sancho was so dazzling on the right wing he left the French outfit’s hapless left-back Nuno Mendes nursing twisted blood.
Almost in the blink of an eye, Sancho has gone from a nightmare to the sort of fairytale even the greatest football fantasists couldn’t dream up.
And it has all left United boss Erik ten Hag needing a mechanical digger to scrape all the egg that’s been left on his face.
Ten Hag questioned Sancho’s attitude in training, while the winger responded by accusing the
Dutchman of telling lies to make him a scapegoat for the team’s failings.
But the fact remains that Ten Hag should never have gone public with his concerns about the player.
It was naive – and broke the unwritten rule that exists between managers and players.
But Ten Hag doubled down to turn the bust-up into a monster.
He demanded an apology from Sancho, and when it wasn’t forthcoming banned him from training with the first team. He couldn’t even have lunch with his team-mates.
When the transfer window came around, Sancho couldn’t wait to throw himself out of it.
So off he went back to Dortmund, hell-bent on reviving his career and showing Ten Hag what he would be missing.
And that’s what he has now done, leaving Ten Hag to wonder if he could have handled the scenario differently.
Those who laugh last, laugh the loudest, and Ten Hag can hear Sancho all the way from Dortmund.