Going by your logic the replacement's feelings were hurt anyway because Ten Hag said he was nominated because of Sancho's training performance, right? How it is not better to praise the replacement's performances instead of criticizing Sancho's then? This way, he directed the attention on Sancho's shortcoming instead of Gore's (?) achievement.
Imagine you're in senior position without employee responsibility at your company and partake in a leadership seminar to qualify for a managing position. The instructor confronts you with the fictional scenario of having an unmotivated employee who recently got lots of stick, is under severe pressure, feels treated unfairly and now underperforms in a way that your department goals are at risk. You have to tell him how you would handle this scenario. Do you think "I would take away responsibility from him and if his clients ask why I just tell them thatI was disappointed with his performance" would be the correct answer?
I mean, I already explained it? If you disagree, fine, but repeating myself if a bit pointless then