Erik ten Hag biography quote hints at how he will deal with Manchester United player Jadon Sancho

Almost five days on it remains the pinned post on Jadon Sancho’s X profile and has garnered more than 60 million views. If you’re reading this in the first place, you know what that is a reference to.

On Sunday night, when informed of Sancho’s social media response to his own claims that the winger had been omitted from the Manchester United squad based on training performances, it was Erik ten Hag who refused to back down.

A United source said Ten Hag felt he had given a “clear reason why Jadon wasn’t selected”. He wasn’t going to change his mind now. Five days on, it seems pretty clear Sancho is in no mood for contrition either.

When his post landed on the platform formerly known as Twitter just an hour after Ten Hag’s press conference comment, it felt like an impulsive response. He had typed out what he wanted to say on the notes app on an Apple device and then taken a screenshot of it.

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But it doesn’t look as though Sancho has had any regrets or second thoughts about essentially accusing his manager of lying and claiming he was being made a “scapegoat”. If he had the post would surely have been deleted. Instead, not only is it still live, but it remains pinned to the top of the winger’s profile, for his 2.2million followers to see.

Manager and player must now find some common ground, however, or risk a feud in which neither seems to want to compromise becoming a distraction or even a disruption.

The simplest solution might have come and gone on Thursday. There was interest from the Saudi Pro League in a loan deal for Sancho and United’s refusal to comment certainly hinted at the possibility of a deal happening, but it came to