Sports

Sir Alex Ferguson warned Manchester United about Paul Pogba

Published

6 years ago

September 28, 2018

We’re not even two months into the new season, and yet it already feels like Manchester United are a club in ‘crisis’.Dropped points, an embarrassing home defeat in the cup and unrest between Jose Mourinho and the club’s record-signing.

If this was a game of Football Manager you’d be excused for shamefully closing the window and re-loading to the summer transfer window.

However, even that may not have been enough for United to rectify the growing tensions between Mourinho and Paul Pogba.

The decision to re-sign the charismatic midfielder and ‘bring him home’ from Juventus in 2016 was bold – seemingly highlighting United’s elite club status despite their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

With hindsight it is easier to say the transfer felt like a confused club trying to stay relevant, spending big in order to prove they were still the biggest side in England.

However, despite warranting a then world-record fee for his phenomenal rise in Turin, there has always been an underlying sense of caution surrounding the World Cup winner.

None more so than from legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson who had warned about the player and his agent, Mino Raiola.

“Pogba signed for Juventus a long time ago as far as we’re aware,” Ferguson told MUTV at the time of Pogba’s controversial Old Trafford exit.

“It’s a bit disappointing because I don’t think he showed us any respect at all. To be honest, if they carry on that way, I’m quite happy that he’s away, from me, anyway.”

Writing in his 2015 book, Leading , Ferguson famously admitted, “there are one or two football agents I simply do not like. And Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, is one of them.”

Perhaps the tales of his unrest are no surprise.

Pogba is not only one of the most talented players of his generation, but he is proving himself to be one of the most controversial, too.

Ferguson was reluctant to give the young Frenchman the chances he deserved in the first team during the pair’s final years at Old Trafford, instead favouring less inspiring options instead.

It was an upbringing of tough love which did not sit right with the French youngster, pushing him further away from United rather than fighting to be a part of it.

Six-years on from his first Old Trafford exit and it looks like Pogba could be yet leave having failed to prove the one point he wanted to make.

“I am delighted to rejoin United,” Pogba said at his unveiling in 2016. “It has always been a club with a special place in my heart and I am really looking forward to working with Jose Mourinho.”

However, questions continue to surround the true nature of his passion for the club. Pogba is a once in a generation talent, but is again suffering under the intense scrutiny of United.

With talks of disagreement between player and manager, another Old Trafford exit could be on the cards. It seems the only person now capable of preventing such a situation is Pogba himself.

Not only can the France international prove his doubters wrong, but he also has the added incentive of proving to two of greatest managers in the history of the game that he truly does have the character to become an United legend.