• United insist the Frenchman will not be sold and Pogba still did enough last season to be named in the Premier League team of the Year, but few would argue that his second spell at the club has been a success.
• Despite having a much better relationship with Pogba than his predecessor, Solskjaer and his coaching staff have seen enough of the player’s high-maintenance side to feel a little sympathy towards Mourinho.
Image: /REUTERS
It’s three years since Paul Pogba danced his way back into Manchester United to the tune of a Stormzy rap and the hashtag #pogback.
A then world-record transfer fee of £89million was a major statement by United in the wake of Jose Mourinho’s appointment as manager and the star signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It has not worked out as planned for United or Pogba, however.
He may have won the League Cup and Europa League in his first season, scoring in the final of the latter competition in Stockholm, but simply hasn’t done enough to justify the fanfare that greeted his return from Juventus in 2016.
It’s no surprise that the last 12 months have been overshadowed by talk of Pogba wanting to leave Old Trafford again, from his attempts to engineer a move to Barcelona last summer as his relationship with Mourinho fell apart to the latest links with Real Madrid following the player’s public admission that it may be time for a new challenge.
United insist the Frenchman will not be sold and Pogba still did enough last season to be named in the Premier League team of the Year, but few would argue that his second spell at the club has been a success. Many fans and even coaching staff at the club would not be sorry to see the back of him.
What has gone wrong for Pogba and a career move that promised so much?
Wake-up call
Pogba had already earned a reputation for being high maintenance and it was revealed in December 2017 that two of United’s support staff had been dispatched to his luxury home in Hale Barns to get the player out of bed when he failed to appear for a warm-down session following a win over Arsenal the previous evening. Staff were beginning to grow tired of the midfielder’s boisterous behaviour and his attempts to always be the centre of attention around the Carrington training complex.
Pep talk
The first signs that Raiola – who made £41m from his client’s transfer from Juventus – was trying to engineer a move away from United appeared in April 2018 when Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola sensationally revealed that the player had been offered to him in the January transfer window. ‘Two months ago, he (Raiola) offered me Pogba to play with us,’ said Guardiola amid a public spat with the agent. His comments gave credence to the rumours that Pogba wanted out.
No way, Jose
Pogba went on to win the World Cup with France but the high point of his career to date brought only a reminder from Mourinho that he had to give the same focus and commitment to United.
“I don’t think it’s about us getting the best out of him, it’s about him giving the best he has to give,” said the United boss on tour in Los Angeles last summer. An irritated Pogba responded after scoring in United’s opening game of the season at home to Leicester, saying: “If you’re not happy, you cannot give your best. There are things I cannot say otherwise I will get fined.” The battle lines had been drawn.
Nou way out
The root of Pogba’s discontent was that he was desperate to join Barcelona after Raiola agreed personal terms with the Catalan giants worth £89.5m over five years. Pogba demanded to be sold, but United chief Ed Woodward blocked his move to the Nou Camp.
Turf war
When United won at Burnley in early September, Pogba insisted on leaving Turf Moor in his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce instead of joining his team-mates on the bus. Mourinho tried unsuccessfully to persuade the player to stay on the bus for a short distance before switching vehicles, and recently confessed that he feared for his job if he tried to force the issue.
“I went to the press conference and when I arrived at the team bus, parked beside it was a Rolls Royce with his chauffeur,” said the Portuguese coach. “After all, the car was new and His Excellency would like to leave the stadium in his Rolls-Royce. Now, how do we deal with this? You tell him never go in the Rolls? You can go when I’m happy? Or you solve this thing in another way to get me ‘on vacation’.”
‘Attack, attack, attack’
With their relationship fast deteriorating, Pogba appeared to criticise Mourinho’s safety-first tactics after a 1-1 home draw with Wolves by calling on United to ‘attack, attack, attack’. Mourinho accused his players of not being as motivated as their opponents after the game, but Pogba offered a different reason for the result when he stopped to answer questions from reporters.
“We should play much better against Wolves,” he said. “When we are at home we should attack, attack, attack. That’s Old Trafford. We are here to attack. I think teams are scared when they see Manchester United attacking and attacking. That was our mistake today. When we play like this it’s easier for us.”
From vice-captain to ‘virus’
When United crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Derby on penalties three days later, Mourinho confirmed that he had stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy. The midfielder was rested for the game but angered his manager further by posting a light-hearted video of himself with team-mates Luke Shaw and Andreas Pereira in the stands.
Mourinho then attempted to make an example of Pogba by confronting him in training in full view of the Sky Sports television cameras to demand an explanation. The relationship had hit rock bottom and Mourinho singled out Pogba in front of his teammates before the game at Southampton in December by labelling him ‘a virus’.
You go or I go
Nothing summed up the desperate state of affairs at United better than the sight of Pogba on the bench when they surrendered tamely at Liverpool before Christmas — the third game in a row he had been named among the substitutes by Mourinho. It was the manager’s last game in charge and Pogba’s brother Mathias later confirmed that one of them had to leave.
“Did Paul think about leaving because of Mourinho? Of course, it comes to mind,” he said. “He was under contract so he had to grit his teeth and keep working. It was Mourinho who was the problem. Mourinho still wants to be the centre of attention. The problem was Mourinho, right down the line.”
Dreaming of Madrid
The arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revived the club as a whole and Pogba in particular. The new manager talked about building a team around the Frenchman and of his captaincy credentials. Pogba responded by leading the resurgence at Old Trafford and all seemed well until March when he spoke of his ‘dream’ of playing under Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid while away on international duty.
“Like I’ve always said, Real Madrid is a dream for anyone,” claimed Pogba. “It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world. There is also Zidane as a coach and it’s a dream for anybody who likes football. For now, I’m at Manchester. We don’t know what the future holds. I’m at Manchester and I’m happy.”
Here w-ego again
Despite having a much better relationship with Pogba than his predecessor, Solskjaer and his coaching staff have seen enough of the player’s high-maintenance side to feel a little sympathy towards Mourinho. They were shocked in April to learn that Pogba wanted to use a training day at Carrington to stage a photoshoot for sponsors Adidas and told him to organise it for a day off instead. It’s perhaps ironic that the player’s latest comments about seeking a new challenge came on an adidas tour in the Far East.
‘Summer’s coming — things are going to happen’
Another of Pogba’s brothers, this time Florentin, admitted in May that the star’s future at Old Trafford was uncertain and hinted at a move away this summer. “I could tell you one thing today and another thing tomorrow,” he said. “Things are going to happen. Summer’s coming. We’ll see if he stays, if he goes.”
China crisis
Speculation that Pogba might try to engineer a move away from United for the second summer in a row was fuelled by reports that the player had not processed his Chinese visa for the pre-season tour along with the rest of his teammates. Although suggestions that Pogba had refused to get a visa were swiftly dismissed, concerns were already growing that he wants to leave the club by the time Solskjaer and his squad depart for Australia on July 8.
Trouble in Tokyo
With Madrid and Juventus monitoring the situation closely, Pogba admitted publicly for the first time that it might the right moment for him to leave Old Trafford when he spoke to reporters in Tokyo at the weekend.
“There is a lot of thinking,” Pogba said. “I have been three years in Manchester and have been doing great – some good moments and some bad moments, like everybody, like everywhere else. After this season and everything that happened, with my season being my best season, it could be a good time to have a new challenge somewhere else.”
The comments have been seen as a clear attempt by Pogba and Raiola to escalate the situation and force United’s hand. The club are standing strong and insist he is not for sale despite reports that a bid in excess of £150m could change their thinking. He remains a United player but the excitement surrounding #pogback seems a long time ago now.