Jurgen Klopp’s telling comments on Jadon Sancho resurface amid bitter Erik ten Hag fallout

Jurgen Klopp’s comments on Jadon Sancho have resurfaced amid the player’s ongoing feud with Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag.

Sancho is training away from the first team after claiming he had been made a “scapegoat” following his omission for United’s squad that lost 3-1 to Arsenal on September 3.

At the time Ten Hag said he had been excluded because his training performances were below standard, an accusation the 23-year-old winger vehemently refuted in a social media post that he subsequently deleted.

As per a Mirror report, Sancho has been exiled from all first-team facilities at United – including the team dining room – while his teammates have urged him to say sorry and end his feud with Ten Hag.

In turn, Sancho’s United future is in doubt, with the player having been linked to a Saudi Arabia transfer, a Borussia Dortmund move and with several clubs in the Premier League.

However, a move to Liverpool is not something likely to be under consideration.

Indeed, while Klopp has praised the winger’s talents in the past, he has stressed on several occasions that the player has always been too expensive for Liverpool.

Speaking on Sancho in 2019, when the player was starring for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Klopp explained that the premium on signing English players had prohibited any potential of a deal.

Klopp said via the Mirror: “Buying English players is a smart idea because we would never have a chance to get Sancho.

“We are not blind – we saw him, we liked him and then we think: ‘Can we get him?’ No. Because English clubs don’t sell to other English clubs. I don’t know exactly what the reason is for that but they don’t do it. Now they can go to Germany, which is a wonderful league.”

A year later, Klopp told Bild that Sancho would be a great signing but he did not expect a deal to go through.

He said: “The red shirt (of Liverpool) would suit very well. I don’t think such a transfer will be possible this season. He (Sancho) is a very interesting player. (But) if he’s coming to Liverpool I would be the most surprised of all of us.”

In 2021, Klopp once again played down the possibility of a deal as he highlighted the financial ramifications of the Covid pandemic. He said: “I hear a lot about big-money moves, I don’t know if Kylian Mbappe is going or not, whether (Erling) Haaland or Sancho will, these kinds of players.

“I don’t see that happening this summer because the football world is still not in the same place it was before.”

And ahead of facing Sancho and United in October 2021, Klopp defended the winger after a difficult start to life at Old Trafford.

“Jadon Sancho is a world-class talent. Definitely,” Klopp said. “He has all the things you need to become really one of the best players in the world in the future.

“That’s how it is, but he’s still very young. At Dortmund, they were obviously full of praise for him. Rightly so.

Klopp continued: “I saw a lot of games where he played outstandingly well. It’s a normal situation where you are, especially. I’m not, but you are, you lose patience a little bit quickly. Don’t forget the options United have in his position.

“Jadon for sure can play in other positions.. but there’s no space anymore…That’s a problem you want to have as a manager to be honest. Everything will be fine for Jadon, but hopefully not on Sunday.”

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