No player bigger than United, Mourinho warns Pogba
MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho was adamant on Friday that his relationship with Paul Pogba was “good” and said that the Frenchman would play in Manchester United’s Premier League match at West Ham United on Saturday.
Yet at the end of a turbulent week which saw United knocked out of League Cup by second-tier Derby County before the manager announced he had dropped Pogba as vice-captain, Mourinho also added pointedly: “No player is bigger than the club.”
Mourinho was again insistent that there was no problem in his relationship with France’s World Cup winner even though he had made the decision, after consultation with other coaches, to demote Pogba from the vice-captaincy. He refused to explain of why he had taken the position from his most influential player.
There had been much speculation that Mourinho had finally lost patience after Pogba’s comments to the media following last week’s tepid league draw with Wolverhampton, in which the midfielder suggested United needed to “attack, attack, attack.”
“The squad and especially Paul know in detail why myself and my coaching staff decided to do that,” said Mourinho on being asked why he had made the decision to strip Pogba of being Antonio Valencia’s deputy as captain.
“After weeks of analysing and changing opinions with my coaching staff, we made the decision that, from now, Paul is just a player and not a captain.
“The player-manager relation is good. Nobody trained better than Paul on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And tomorrow he plays. So, end of the story. He is a player like the others. No player is bigger than the club and if I’m happy with his work, he plays and if I’m not happy with his work he doesn’t.”