Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has backed Jadon Sancho to “click” after his return to the club following a public falling out between the pair last season.
Sancho made his first appearance for Manchester United since last August in a pre-season friendly against Rangers on Saturday.
He spent the second half of last season on loan at his former club Borussia Dortmund and reached the UEFA Champions League final after publicly criticising Ten Hag in a social media post.
But after holding a meeting with Ten Hag earlier this month, Sancho has returned to training with the first team.
“We talked well,” he told Dutch outlet AD Sportwereld ahead of Saturday’s 2-0 friendly win. “Everyone can make a mistake. If the player reflects on it well, he draws a line and moves on.”
“This club needs good players and one thing is certain: Jadon Sancho is a very good player. I hope we stay in tune and that he contributes to our success.”
Despite intense speculation over his future, Ten Hag signed a new contract to remain as Manchester United manager this summer. The former Ajax boss will take over at Old Trafford in 2022 from caretaker manager Ralf Ragnick, who had said the club needed “open heart” surgery to return to its former glories.
“Rangnick was absolutely right,” Ten Hag told AD Sportwereld. “We’ve been working very hard on this for two years, but he was absolutely right: it’s a very complex and painstaking operation. And I knew from the start that it was going to be hard work.”
The existing structure around Ten Hag has changed dramatically in recent months following the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a minority owner. Ten Hag described the early signs of working alongside new sporting director Dan Ashworth, technical director Jason Wilcox and recruitment director Christopher Vivell as “very good”.
This summer, United already signed young French defender Leny Yoro for an initial fee of €62 million ($67.6 million), as well as Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee for more than €40 million ($43 million) from Bologna.
The club also remain interested in defenders Matthijs de Ligt of Bayern Munich and Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton, sources told ESPN.
“I’m not going to comment specifically on whether we will get those two names or not,” Ten Hag said in the interview. “It remains to be seen whether De Ligt will come. I know Matthijs well and I’m not going to deny it.”
“I wanted to sign him two years ago, but at that point he was too far along to join Bayern Munich, but believe it or not, his name never came out of my mouth in the process.”
