First impressions are hard to shift and they have returned to haunt Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish over the last year.
First impressions are hard to shift and they have returned to haunt Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish over the last year.
While they may be rich beyond their wildest dreams and sitting on lucrative contracts with Manchester’s super clubs, overflowing bank accounts can’t buy them the respect and credibility they will try to reclaim on the field in the coming months.
So as England stumbled their way into the Euro 2024 final this summer, Sancho and Grealish were being photographed lying on sun beds and luxury yachts and looking in on a party they were not invited to.
Their critics would cruelly argue these two young men are not used to missing out on a party as both have been caught up in a series of off-field controversies that have defined their image for all the wrong reasons.
So when sporting icons with their history of baggage allow their careers to fall off the rails, their attitude will always be questioned.
That was more than justified in Sancho’s case, with the reasons for his fall-out with United manager Erik tan Hag were hard to defend.
Ten Hag made little secret of his disdain to Sancho’s attitude to training and time keeping, with his persistent late arrival at the club’s training ground forcing the manager to take a stand.
It appeared there would be no way back for Sancho so long as Ten Hag was in United manager, but the club’s new co-owner appeared to make it clear that the Dutchman needed to find a way to patch up his differences with the attacking star.
Ten Hag was in a weak position in his stand-off with Sancho, as the money men at United would be reluctant to further devalue an asset that cost around £80million over a dispute with a manager who only has the tepid support from the club’s hierarchy.
It remains to be seen whether the uneasy truce between United’s manager and one of his star players will hold, but Ten Hag certainly appears to be ready to bury the hatchet with Sancho.
“We’ve drawn the line under this,” was Ten Hag’s brief statement when he was asked about Sancho’s return during his side’s pre-season tour of America.
“Manchester United need good players and Jadon is a good player. We have drawn that line and we move on.”
There were no further platitudes offered to Sancho and few will be surprised if this dispute between manager and player is sparked into life once again sooner rather than later.
Grealish is a different case to Sancho in so many ways, so it may be unfair to throw him into the same conversation as his United counterpart.
For a start, 28-year-old Grealish is four years senior to Sancho and has achieved so much more in his career, with the key role he played in Manchester City’s Treble winning success of last year permanently etched onto his record.
As Grealish stood crying with joy on the pitch in Istanbul as he held the Champions League trophy in the summer of 2023, he would never have imagined that he would be pondering his future with club and country just 12 months later.
Grealish lost his way alarmingly last season, with Gareth Southgate’s decision to leave him out of England’s Euro 2024 squad confirming his career was going backwards and he admits the pain of is omission cut deep.
“When you are on your holidays, every time you turn on the phone or the TV you just see it (Euro 2024) so it was hard not to see,” said Grealish, as he reflected on his pain of missing out on the England squad.
“I’ll be honest, football-wise it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with in terms of my own career.
“I was absolutely heartbroken. I felt I should have been in the squad. I feel like I offer something different to players in the England squad, but I have to show that this season.”
It was telling that the first question Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was asked about Grealish in recent days focused on his attitude, with the perception that his most expensive signing has lost his way due to a loss of focus quickly dismissed.
“Any complaints no – completely the opposite. The body language and his behaviour is the opposite, it’s the Jack we knew,” said the City boss.
“In the right moment, he will be back at his best because we need him.
“Not playing in the Euros was not something we needed to talk about.
“Hopefully it can be the spark to move forward – sometimes you need something to ignite yourself and be even better.”
Sancho’s reintegration into the United squad could yet be part of a club plan to erase the negativity around him and present him as a more sellable asset, with the divide between manager and player appearing to be too deep for it to have been resolved so swiftly.
Yet for now, Sancho is a Manchester United player once again and could be in contention to play in next weekend’s Community Shield season opener against Manchester City at Wembley.
Grealish will be hoping to take part in that match, but the harsh truth must be that the damage done by last season’s troubles may take longer to heal than Jadon and Jack might hope.
