Jadon Sancho was substituted in Aston Villa’s 2-1 Europa League win over Basel on Thursday night and the winger was not happy about being taken off, as was clear in his reaction
Jadon Sancho displayed his displeasure when withdrawn in Basel on Thursday evening following another performance where the Aston Villa ace struggled. The England international was taken off in the 64th minute in Switzerland.
Morgan Rogers came on in place of Sancho midweek and the on-loan Manchester United ace reacted by striking a dugout seat as he walked towards the bench.
It marked the 25-year-old’s fourth consecutive Europa League start, yet he has still not featured from the beginning in a Premier League match since arriving at Villa Park on loan, indicating he remains short of Unai Emery’s expectations and sits outside the Spaniard’s preferred starting eleven.
Sancho’s reaction to his substitution in Basel has drawn criticism from former Villa scout Bryan King, who worked for the Villans across two periods totalling 11 years and initially identified Sancho whilst he was representing England’s youth sides.
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“One day, he’ll look back and realise how much money he’s making from football,” King told astonvillanews.co.uk. “All these players can sort themselves out with consistency in football if they start to get consistency in their lives away from football.
“He was the best talent I saw at the under-17s Euros. Where he’s gone wrong is off the field, because he really was a talent at Manchester City. Sancho looks to me as if he doesn’t want to be at Villa. If that’s the case, then cheerio.
“You don’t use a football club like Aston Villa as somewhere to earn money, you’re at a very big football club. There’s only so much they can tolerate.
“When people start hitting out when they come off, and they’re upset, that’s fine, but make sure it’s in the dressing room. It’s no good to make a scene.”
Sancho is expected to find himself amongst the substitutes once again when Villa aim to secure their ninth consecutive victory on Sunday against West Ham United.
Despite suffering a disappointing start to the campaign, Villa have climbed the Premier League table, with Emery commenting: “We are not feeling under pressure.
“We are feeling, with our responsibility, each one trying to get his best, very demanding collectively and individually and responding [in] each competition, each moment, like we need, and nothing more.
“Of course, 38 matches, there are a lot of points, and [a] long way to be consistent and demanding like we are. But now we are in December we are still feeling good, but each match is a test.
“And on Sunday is a huge test again against West Ham away, because they are progressively performing fantastic. They are really playing and competing much, much better than they did before.”
