Jose Mourinho says despite making mistakes, Jadon Sancho has been failed by Manchester United and Erik ten Haag.
Sancho lines up for Dortmund in Saturday’s Champions League Final against Real Madrid after returning to the club on loan from Old Trafford in January.
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Last September ten Haag said he had dropped Sancho due to his performance in training, something which the 24-year-old refuted in a social media post, saying he was being made ‘a scapegoat.’
Mourinho was reportedly interested in taking the London-born winger to Roma before his departure from the Stadio Olimpico in January.
The 61-year-old opened up on his own experiences managing young players, speaking on TNT Sports ahead of the Wembley final.
“As a player we know his talent. We know what he can do, there are no doubts about it,” he said.
“What happened at Man United? If I look to my own history, sometimes I failed with players, sometimes I couldn’t create the right empathy, sometimes I couldn’t understand the player’s DNA and I couldn’t help players to grow up in the right direction.
“The majority of the time I did it, but on some occasions I couldn’t. I try to learn from the experiences. Try to understand the nature of the players.
“Sometimes they have the talent but they do not the mindset you want from a player. For sure the kid’s made mistakes, but his manager was not able to get the best out of him.”
Mourinho claimed there were usually more than one reason for issues like Sancho’s, explaining: “Normally its multifactorial. Normally it’s not the manager, the player, the family, the agent, the club…
“Looking at myself as a coach, I did, many times, get the best out of young players and help them to be what they were in the future, other times I failed.”
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