It appears that “showdown talks” between Jadon Sancho and with his manager Erik ten Hag have gone well. At least according to the player’s Twitter/X account.
Yes, that is what counts as sports journalism in 2023- analyzing a footballer’s social media! It took him close to 10 days, but Sancho has finally deleted the Tweet in which he called his own manager a liar.
Jadon Sancho has now deleted his statement ?? pic.twitter.com/RxbcE7QWVe
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) September 12, 2023
Is this a sign of fence-mending? Is this the England international’s long overdue wake-up call? Is he going to finally commit himself to giving 110% all the time? Will he bring the right attitude to training, and win over his teammates? Will he finally start living up to his potential?
Will he make sure that his stay at United doesn’t go the way of cautionary examples Memphis Depay, Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba?
Is it possible that Sancho will follow the lead of Marcus Rashford- by heeding Ten Hag’s tough love and making himself better from it?
Only time will tell. After all, the winger/attacking midfielder/sometimes center forward had left that Tweet pinned to the top of his page for a week and a half. And we are seeing the tabloids reporting stories that Jadon Sancho wants out of United come January, so who’s to say.
Those back page narratives should be taken with a grain of salt though, especially given how the “news” of Sancho moving to Saudi Arabia on loan for the rest of the season, just this past Thursday, proved to be more smoke than fire.
We’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.