Inside Jadon Sancho's dismal Man Utd career: Denied the No.7, marginalised by Cristiano Ronaldo & refusing to apologise to Erik ten Hag

Looking back on Sancho's ill-fated time with United, it is tempting to conclude it was doomed from the start. The Red Devils first declared their interest in signing him in 2019 after Sancho had scored 14 goals and set up a further 20 in his first full season in Dortmund's first team. They balked at Dortmund's asking price, though, and instead signed Daniel James from Swansea for £15m ($19m).

But while James struggled for consistency in his first season at Old Trafford, Sancho got better and better, delivering 19 goals and 19 assists in 2020-21. United stepped up their pursuit in the summer of 2020, holding talks with Sancho, although they refused to meet Dortmund's asking price of over £100m ($127m) as funds were still tight amid the coronavirus pandemic. One year later, however, they agreed a fee of £74m and welcomed Sancho in July 2021 with a stylish presentation video.

Then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had petitioned for his signing for two years, said Sancho was a forward made for United given their rich history of wingers. But what came next completely undid all the hard work they had done in bringing Sancho to the club.

Sancho's transfer was followed by the signing of Raphael Varane, setting United up nicely to build on their second-placed finish from the previous campaign. But both new arrivals were totally upstaged when United announced they had re-signed Cristiano Ronaldo, 12 years after he had left the club for Real Madrid as a Ballon d'Or winner.

Ronaldo's return was a commercial bonanza for United, but completely upset the balance of the team, and Sancho was one of the main casualties. First of all, the England international had been denied the No.7 shirt he had been promised a year earlier when first speaking to United. He had worn the No.7 at Dortmund and was excited to follow in the footsteps of past United 'Magnificent Sevens' such as George Best, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Ronaldo himself.

However, by the time Sancho arrived, the No.7 shirt was occupied by Edinson Cavani, and the ex-Manchester City trainee instead had to make do with the No.25. To add insult to injury, just weeks later when Ronaldo came through the door, suddenly Cavani was willing to give up his squad number for the man dubbed 'CR7'.

It might sound trivial for a player to complain about the number he wears, but the whole affair was a sign that Ronaldo was the priority, not Sancho. And the same was true on the pitch.

Despite United spending so long pursuing Sancho and making him their fourth-most expensive signing of all time, the winger quickly became an afterthought as Solskjaer was forced to rejig his whole team to fit Ronaldo in.

The Norwegian gave Sancho just four Premier League starts before he was sacked in November 2021, and the forward only got his first goal for United under caretaker manager Michael Carrick against Villarreal, before striking again a few days later at Chelsea.

Sancho improved under interim boss Ralf Rangnick, but his revival came amid a general downturn in results for United and Ronaldo, who failed to score for six games running. And according to The Athletic, Ronaldo tried to get the manager to change the team's tactics and play another striker alongside him at the expense of Sancho. Rangnick reportedly rejected Ronaldo's suggestion, although he did drop Sancho to the bench for the 0-0 draw against Watford. Sancho ended his first campaign with just four goals and three assists in all competitions.

While Ronaldo pushed for a move away from United over the summer of 2022 and started the next season on the bench, Sancho took centre-stage and made a flying start to the new campaign, suddenly resembling the player he was at Dortmund.

He scored a brilliant goal in the 2-1 win over Liverpool and then struck another decisive goal against Leicester City, while also netting against Sheriff in the Europa League.

"He understands now he has to invest in the physical and that is what he did. Now he can get the reward and that is what he has to bring. I'm sure it's the start for him," said a delighted Ten Hag. "With his potential, there's much more room for improvement, he can be even more important and contribute with his creativity and scoring goals and assists."

However, Sancho's bright start soon faded and he contributed less and less in matches. Ten Hag took decisive action, removing him from the squad completely and devising an individual training programme to get the winger fit and firing again.

"When the league started he played some good games, but after we got a drop of levels. Sometimes you don't know why or what is causing it," the Dutchman said. "Most of the time it comes slowly. First you observe, but the stats back it up. In the start of the season, he had goals and assists, but his key moments and key actions became less and less. It's a combination of physical, but also mental."

Ten Hag arranged for Sancho to train with Dutch amateur side OJC Rosmalen so he could rehabilitate away from the glare of the public eye in November, meaning he missed United's training camp in Spain during the 2022 World Cup.

Sancho finally returned to the United team in February 2023 and received a rousing reception from fans when he made his comeback against Nottingham Forest. He was grateful for the response, writing on social media: "Wow! Just want to say a massive thank you to everyone for the support I’ve received over the past few weeks, especially to the fans. My focus is to give my all to my team and the club, I’m so happy to be back out on the pitch, see you soon."

Sancho then scored twice in quick succession, netting in a comeback against rivals Leeds before scoring in the 3-0 win over Leicester. Unfortunately, his revival proved to be short-lived, and he ended the season in unconvincing form, scoring just twice in the final three months.

An injury to Antony meant he started the FA Cup final against former club Manchester City, but he failed to have any tangible impact in the 2-1 defeat.

Sancho was heavily involved in pre-season ahead of the 2023-24 campaign and was deployed as a false nine during the tour of the United States. However, he was left out of the starting line-up for the Premier League season opener against Wolves, as well as the subsequent matches against Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, coming off the bench in each game to little effect.

He was then left out of the squad altogether for the September trip to Arsenal, and when Ten Hag was asked about Sancho's omission, he did not bite his tongue. "On his performance on training we didn't select him," the manager said, to much surprise. "You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game, he wasn't selected."

Sancho, who does not speak often with the press and is not usually vocal on social media, immediately fired back within an hour. "Please don't believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well this week," Sancho wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won't go into, I've been a scapegoat for a long time, which isn't fair!"

United stayed silent for nearly two weeks before announcing Sancho would not be returning to training following the international break and would "remain on a personal training programme away from the first-team group, pending resolution of a squad discipline issue".

There was some hope that Sancho and Ten Hag would iron out their differences when the winger deleted the offending social media post, but the player reportedly refused the club's request to publicise his apology to the manager and the standoff continued.

It has been revealed that he was banned from all first-team facilities and had to park his car at the academy building before locking himself in the changing rooms at the academy due to safeguarding directives. Sancho was also banned from United’s canteen and had food brought to him in a lunch box, which he ate from alone before heading home.

Sancho's refusal to apologise to Ten Hag underlined an immature side to the player that had been highlighted in the past. He struggled with time-keeping while at Borussia Dortmund and was punished for flouting national lockdown rules during the coronavirus crisis.

It has also been reported that his attitude was questioned by England coach Gareth Southgate and was one of the reasons he was dropped from the squad long before his rift with Ten Hag. He was also known for his lack of punctuality at United: Nemanja Matic claimed he was late "every day" and the club reportedly devised a special schedule for him, obliging him to arrive at training an hour before his team-mates.

Ten Hag, who has pointed out that he was told to sort out United's long-running disciplinary problems when he was appointed as manager, showed no sign of a climbdown and last month insisted he had no regrets for taking a hard line against Sancho.

With no solution in sight, Sancho is heading back to where he started 30 months previously, in an inferior league and further away than ever from returning to the England squad. United, meanwhile, are £74m poorer, and their recruitment policy and lack of due diligence has come in for further criticism.

The only positive is that they have managed to replace Sancho with Alejandro Garnacho, an academy graduate with the talent and desire to become one of the best players in the world.

Hopefully Sancho can revive himself back in Dortmund, where his career truly took off. But his stock has taken an almighty tumble, and any self-respecting club will have serious reservations about signing him permanently in the future.