Former Man Utd midfielder Nemanja Matic has revealed Jadon Sancho and Paul Pogba used to anger their team-mates because they were always late to training.
Pogba returned to Old Trafford for a then-world record fee of £89million in 2016, but never replicated the form he showed at Juventus in the previous four years and returned to the Serie A side as a free agent last year.
Sancho, meanwhile, has been frozen out at Old Trafford following his well-publicised spat with Erik ten Hag earlier this season and looks set to leave United in January or at the end of the season.
The 35-year-old joined the Red Devils from Chelsea back in 2017 and highlighted the differences between the standards at the two clubs.
‘At Chelsea, players acted professionally, they were punctual and were never late for training but at United it happened almost every day,’ he said speaking to YouTube channel YU Planet.
Nemanja Matic has revealed which two players used to anger their team-mates at Man United
The midfielder revealed players would be late to training at United more often than Chelsea
He revealed that a disciplinary committee was set up due to the frequency of lateness
‘Among the players who would always be late were Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho and couple of other players.’
Sancho has been banished to work on his own after falling out with the Dutchman by publicly challenging the manager’s reasons for dropping him from the squad for the game against Arsenal in September.
The England international has refused to apologise to ten Hag since and remains unavailable for selection, with his career at Old Trafford seemingly over just a year after joining from Borussia Dortmund for £73m.
The 23-year-old has been linked with a potential reunion with Pogba at Juventus, with the prospect of a return to Dortmund complicated by his wages.
Sancho struggled under interim manager Ralf Rangnick, who suggested the winger faced a ‘psychologically and emotionally’ situation as he tried to live up to his transfer fee.
‘We can give guidelines,’ Rangnick said in January 2022, shortly after replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in charge.
‘We can give him a helping hand and show him we are trying to accompany him and give him all the necessary assistance that he needs, but in the end it’s up to him to take the next steps.
Matic, who left for Roma in 2022, went into detail about his disciplinary committee as they collected money from those who were late to training.
Jadon Sancho has struggled at Man Utd since joining from Borussia Dortmund
Paul Pogba’s second spell at Man Utd was largely underwhelming
‘The rest of us who were always on time were angry so we decided to form a kind of an internal disciplinary committee with me serving as its president’.
However, the Covid-19 outbreak meant that the money could not be used for a celebration.
He continued: ‘I put a sheet of paper up on the wall where I documented the names of individuals arriving late. During one particular season we collected around £75,000 in fines.
‘We had planned to use the money to throw a party in London but we didn’t due to the Covid outbreak.’
Matic’s comments come just days after the attitude of several United players was publicly questioned following a dismal performance in the 1-0 loss against Newcastle on Saturday night.
Several pundits, from Paul Scholes to Roy Keane and from Jamie Carragher to Alan Shearer, questioned the lack of effort from a number of players.
Matic won two titles at Chelsea and said he was surprised by the difference in standards between the Blues and Man Utd
Erik ten Hag has reportedly lost the support of some of his players
‘Rubbish,’ was Scholes’s opinion for Premier League Productions. ‘There are too many lazy players.’
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Shearer suggested the manner of the defeat spoke volumes for the attitude of some United players.
‘I thought they were a mess, I thought they were terrible,’ he said.
‘I thought there were three or four players yesterday who were not prepared to roll their sleeves up and gave up far too easily and didn’t want to fight.’
