Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has criticised Erik ten Hag's handling of the Jadon Sancho Manchester United saga, which led to his deadline day move to Chelsea.
Sancho and Ten Hag were at odds for a nearly a year, a feud which ignited when the Dutchman left the English attacker out of his matchday squad for a Premier League defeat to Arsenal last September.
The ex-Borussia Dortmund winger effectively called his manager a liar with a bombshell social media statement, and having refused to apologise, he was frozen out of the Red Devils' squad and banned from the first-team facilities.
Ten Hag also refused to back down and gave the green light to Sancho re-joining Dortmund on loan in January, where he played a key role in the German side's run to the Champions League final before burying the hatchet with Ten Hag.
The Man United boss offered Sancho ample opportunities to impress in pre-season, but he refused to re-integrate him into a competitive setting and waved him out of the door for Chelsea on deadline day.
Klopp on Sancho: 'The manager has to be behind the player'
Ten Hag's approach did not sit well with Klopp, though, as the former Liverpool and Dortmund boss insisted that the Dutchman should have been the one to show faith in Sancho when "the whole world" was against him.
"If the whole world loses trust and faith in the player, the manager has to be the one behind the player," The Mirror quotes Klopp as saying. "I cannot just buy into that 'he's useless,' like other clubs did by the way - buying a player for £80 million and then sending him out on loan!"
Prior to his lengthy exile from the Man United ranks, Sancho also spent a few months away from the team in the 2022-23 season to work on his physical and mental health, but he never hit the heights expected of him at Old Trafford.
The 24-year-old only managed 12 goals and six assists in 83 matches for the Red Devils, who will make a huge loss on the £73m that they paid Dortmund for his services in the summer of 2021.
Sancho's loan move to Chelsea will become permanent at the end of the season, and the Blues are expected to pay Man United around £25m to keep him at Stamford Bridge.
When will Sancho make his Chelsea debut?
Sancho was presented to the Chelsea crowd in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace last weekend, having not been registered as a Blues player in time to make his debut in that West London derby.
However, the 24-year-old - who was not called up to the England squad for September's Nations League matches - will be expected to earn his Chelsea baptism against Bournemouth on September 14.
As Sancho is still technically owned by Man United, he will not be able to play against his parent club in either Premier League fixture this season, as Chelsea head to Old Trafford on November 2 before hosting the Red Devils in the penultimate weekend of the season on 18 May.
The Englishman will compete with the likes of Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku for wide starts in West London body check tags ::
