AWKWARD HOME TRUTHS ABOUT POGBA

LOOK at what Jose Mourinho actually said about Paul Pogba, rather than merely the fall-out from it, and he actually makes a lot of sense. He said Pogba (below) was ‘absolutely brilliant’ in the second part of the World Cup, which he was. He said to be a World Cup winner can only be positive, and he’s right there, too. The controversy was in the caveats, dripped across a series of interviews on the American tour. ‘I hope he understands why he was very good,’ Mourinho added. ‘It was the perfect habitat for a player like him to give the best, because it’s closed for a month where he can only think about football. He was isolated from commercial compromises and isolated from every possible influence.’ So Pogba is best when he is removed from social media and emojis and Pogbunnies and commercial shoots, when he doesn’t change his hair every two minutes, and is dedicated, completely, to his football? Isn’t that what everybody has been saying? Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Graeme Souness, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, Jamie Carragher — all have criticised Pogba over the last year, often by implying he is not working hard enough or fully focused. And if he looked a different player at the World Cup it may be that Mourinho is right and he is better in an environment without distractions. The problem is that it is only Mourinho and Manchester United who do not appear able to hold Pogba’s attention. At Juventus, his worth rose to £90m on the back of four league titles; with France he won the World Cup. Now back with United, he has welcomed the new season with a lengthy Instagram post showing him getting a haircut, incorporating two gold stars to represent France’s two World Cups. And here we go again. Even if Mourinho is right about Pogba, what he cannot adequately explain is why his player becomes a different person back in Manchester. Perhaps because the answer is too close to home.