“It’s a lack of respect” – Manager’s decision to bench Manchester United’s ‘immense talent’ slammed

When the Africa Cup of Nations started, there was a bit of controversy around the situation of Manchester United’s André Onana.

The goalkeeper decided to stay at the club to play a crucial Premier League before then going to the international competition, only to end up sitting on the bench for most of Cameroon’s run in the competition.

This was an incident that caused a lot of conversations, including one a few weeks later taken up by El Hadji Diouf, who spoke to Canal+, relayed by Afrique Sports, about the incident involving the Manchester United goalkeeper.

Onana was left on the bench in the last 16 game against Nigeria, and the former Bolton star made it clear he didn’t like that move.

He said: “André Onana is someone I respect a lot and I congratulate him for what he does and his commitment to his team. How can you have a goalkeeper of Onana’s calibre, an immense talent who plays for Manchester United and not play him in the round of 16 game? For me, it’s a lack of respect and if I were a player, I wouldn’t agree with that.”

These comments, we must say, are a far cry from what Diouf was saying at the time, claiming it was borderline unacceptable that Onana was allowed to join the competition late and such matters would never happen within the Senegal squad.

The Manchester United star has faced a lot of criticism this season after his big move from Inter Milan, costing his club almost single handedly qualification out of the Champions League groups with some key mistakes.

However, his form has improved a lot since, as the Red Devils pick up some form and he starts to back up the transfer fee that was spent on his services this summer.