Manchester United are celebrating finishing the 2023/24 season with a trophy after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup.
The FA Cup Final concluded the domestic season, while the Champions League campaign comes to a close this weekend.
Sadly Manchester United are not involved, knocked out in the group stages. But there is one Red Devils player with some involvement.
Winger Jadon Sancho is out on loan at former club Borussia Dortmund, where he will take on Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley.
Jadon Sancho fallout with Erik ten Hag
Jadon Sancho has got his career back on track after a fallout with Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag earlier in the season.
Sancho was dropped from the squad ahead of the Arsenal game, and then hit out at Erik ten Hag on social media when the manager suggested his training levels were below par.
Ten Hag sought an apology and most United fans expected the issue to be squashed quickly, however, the winger refused to say sorry.
As a result he ended up spending four months on the sidelines, before being sent out on loan to Dortmund, a deal United could end up netting £6.4 million for in total.
Now, coach Benni McCarthy has shed some light on the situation, in an interview with South African radio station 947 Joburg.
Sancho was one of the players who worked with McCarthy and the coach said he appealed to him ‘as a friend’ to try and get him to apologise, but was met with resistance.
He explained: “He didn’t see the need why he had got to apologise, [but] sometimes you’ve just got to be the bigger person.
“Jadon didn’t want to apologise. Neither the player or the manager was going to accept anything less than an apology.
“It ended up dragging, the situation could easily have been avoided with communication.”
McCarthy on why Sancho refused to apologise
McCarthy continued: “I had a conversation with him. Jadon was part of my group.
“Jadon felt that if he apologises, then he would be classed as someone who doesn’t train hard and don’t work hard and everything that was said against him was true.
“And when you come from the street, nobody wants to apologise. You admit that you are not training well, that you’re lazy, everything that you’re accused of. Jadon wasn’t going to have that.
“The manager said simple all he wanted was an apology to come, and I spoke to Jadon as a coach, I spoke to Jadon as a mentor, I spoke to Jadon as a friend, and I spoke as someone who grew up in the streets as well who understands the code and everything.
“He said: ‘I am not apologising because if I do, I am apologising for being lazy, always being late for training and not doing my best. That is what I am apologising for,’ and those were his reasons.”
Sancho has gone on to begin restoring his transfer value in Germany, and is expected to be sold this summer.
The future of Erik ten Hag is up for debate at United, which could give Sancho a lifeline at Old Trafford if the manager is replaced, but it remains to be seen whether he would want a fresh start anyway.