Roy Keane offers Jadon Sancho a path back to the first team – Man United News And Transfer News

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Roy Keane has described how he would feel “embarrassed” to be in Jadon Sancho’s position at present, but offered a route back into the fold at Manchester United for the winger.

Sancho has been banished from the first-team following a public dispute with Erik ten Hag over the his application in training.

Sancho was not included in the squad for the match against Arsenal, with Ten Hag revealing after the match it was due to substandard performances at Carrington.

The winger responded immediately on X (formerly known as Twitter) with an emotional repudiation of his manager’s words.

The Dutch manager is reported to have demanded an apology from Sancho for these accusations. The 23-year old refused, reaffirming his position that he’s been made a ‘scapegoat‘ under Ten Hag’s watch.

Sancho has neither played for, nor trained with, the first team since this point.

Keane believes the winger is wrong to have allowed his commitment to be questioned, but contends things can change quickly in football dressing rooms.

The midfield maestro knows a thing or two about falling out of favour at Old Trafford, but one area which could never be questioned was Keane’s attitude and work ethic.

The midfielder was a consummate professional who set the standard on the training pitch at Carrington as United captain. Speaking on The Overlap, he revealed he would never put himself in a position to be accused of not training at the requisite level.

“I’d be embarrassed, I’d be ashamed of my life if the manager ever came up to me, or even spoke through the media,” he said.

“People say you can’t say stuff about the players through the media, yes you can, you can send messages out to people.”

The Ireland international asserted, however, that Sancho and Ten Hag could resolve their differences and the dressing room would move on “very quickly.”

“If you have got questions marks over this player, he is not training properly and he does turn around and show some sort of humility and says maybe I got it wrong, you can move on very quickly,” Keane said.

“We’ve been in dressing rooms where players have come in and said: ‘Sorry lads I have made a mistake’ and it is forgotten about very quickly. Football dressing rooms are a strange dynamic. If a player shows they care and they are human, it’s fine, we move on quickly.”

Gary Neville, speaking on the same podcast as Keane, was less optimistic. The former United fullback asked when had we ever seen a manager publicly call out a player in the press and it produced a positive result. “It’s usually the end,” Neville concluded.

It remains to be seen which former United great will end up being correct on a delicate situation which appears no closer to a resolution.