CHELSEA legend John Obi Mikel has called out Erik ten Hag over a major “no-no” Sir Alex Ferguson would never have done.
The former midfielder has taken aim at the Manchester United boss for his handling of the fallout with Jandon Sancho.
Mikel, 36, came close to a move to Old Trafford in 2006 before favouring a switch to Stamford Bridge.
He has now come out to slam the Red Devils and specifically Ten Hag for his recent actions regarding Sancho.
The 23-year-old remains exiled from United’s first team for not apologising to Ten Hag following his social media outcry.
He accused the Dutch boss of lying and claimed he’s been a “scapegoat for a long time” after being left out of the matchday squad to face Arsenal on September 3.
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Speaking on The Obi One podcast Mikel said: “I think that calling Sancho out should be a no-no.
“Everybody is going about Sancho not apologising, I have a different view on that.
“My view is that the manager shouldn’t have said what he said in public. I wouldn’t come out publicly.
“When you listen to the ex-United players they’ve all said one thing – when things like this happened before during Sir Alex Ferguson, it was dealt with inside the dressing room, he handled it.
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“It doesn’t matter how he handled it but he handled it. If his decision was for the player not to be involved anymore, that’s it.
“You cannot come out publicly and criticise a player and say he wasn’t training really well.
“What do you expect the player to do? You came out publicly, I came out publicly, why do you expect me to apologise?
“I think it should have been dealt with privately. If he was late to training, he wasn’t performing, there’s a different way to deal with it.”
Sancho was pictured in the US attending the party of an NBA star just days after his social media clash with Ten Hag.
Responding to this, Mikel added: “Im not sitting here trying to defend Jadon but the manager has come out and thrown him under the bus.
“There have been a few bad results, the team is not playing well. The manager thought ‘I’m going to find a scapegoat’.
“I don’t know how this is going to go but I hope they find a way to resolve it because he’s a top player.
“He needs to play, he’s young, 23, he hasn’t even reached his peak, still far away from that, but I hope they find a way to resolve it and get him back on the pitch, but if not then he has to move on.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
