Chelsea hero John Obi Mikel feels Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has blundered in his handling of Jadon Sancho.
Ten Hag has banished Sancho from the first team and wants the player sold after the winger criticised him on social media.
Speaking on The Obi One podcast, Mikel said: "I think that calling Sancho out should be a no-no.
"Everybody is going about Sancho not apologising, I have a different view on that.
"My view is that the manager shouldn't have said what he said in public. I wouldn't come out publicly.
"When you listen to the ex-United players they've all said one thing - when things like this happened before during Sir Alex Ferguson, it was dealt with inside the dressing room, he handled it.
"It doesn't matter how he handled it but he handled it. If his decision was for the player not to be involved anymore, that's it.
"You cannot come out publicly and criticise a player and say he wasn't training really well.
"What do you expect the player to do? You came out publicly, I came out publicly, why do you expect me to apologise?
"I think it should have been dealt with privately. If he was late to training, he wasn't performing, there's a different way to deal with it."
Sancho was pictured in the US attending the party of an NBA star just days after his social media post.
In reaction, Mikel added: "I'm not sitting here trying to defend Jadon but the manager has come out and thrown him under the bus.
"There have been a few bad results, the team is not playing well. The manager thought 'I'm going to find a scapegoat'.
"I don't know how this is going to go but I hope they find a way to resolve it because he's a top player.
"He needs to play, he's young, 23, he hasn't even reached his peak, still far away from that, but I hope they find a way to resolve it and get him back on the pitch, but if not then he has to move on."