Daily Star Sunday

JUST FLICKS ‘Pogumentar­y’ is no problem for OT boss Ole

- By SIMON MULLOCK

PAUL POGBA’S contract saga is set to be played out in front of the TV cameras, after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted he has no problem with Amazon’s potentiall­y explosive documentar­y series about the Manchester United midfielder.

Solskjaer believes his World Cup-winning French star, 28, is a natural for the screen – and is adamant that the programme will not intrude on Pogba’s £300,000-a-week day job.

The documentar­y is set for release in 2022 and will capture the player during a critical stage of his career.

He has just over a year left on his United contract after the club were forced to trigger a 12-month extension option. Pogba’s bullish super-agent Mino Raiola has spent almost three years trying to force his client’s departure from the club following his record £90million return to United in 2016.

And it now appears the drama of deciding Pogba’s fate will be captured in high definition by Amazon’s filmmakers.

Solskjaer said: “Paul has been in the spotlight ever since he started at Man United, so I don’t see a problem with it.

“Paul’s main focus is to get as much out of his career as possible. He has already won the World Cup and I can see his focus now is all about winning and playing the best possible football that he can.

“I know his personalit­y. He is so lively. He gets energy from making people happy.

“But his main focus will always be to win football games for us.”

Pogba is a huge draw when it comes to United’s commercial activities. And Raiola’s hand in any negotiatio­ns is strengthen­ed further by his ability to demand a huge signing on fee to bolster a bank-busting wage deal should the player become a free agent at the end of next season.

Solskjaer has expertly manoeuvred himself around barbed comments the agent has made about the club over the past 12 months.

The United boss stepped up his own charm offensive by making Pogba captain ahead of Bruno Fernandes, when Harry Maguire was suspended for the Europa League win over Granada on Thursday night.

Solskjaer was forced to substitute his stand-in skipper at half-time after Pogba picked up a booking and ran the risk of being sent off and suspended for the semi-final.

After the game, the midfielder proved that mutual respect runs both ways by coming to his manager’s defence in his war of words with Tottenham’s former

United boss Jose Mourinho.

It was Mourinho who brought Pogba back to Old Trafford, four years after his departure to Juventus following his refusal to sign a new contract.

United are desperate not to lose the Frenchman for a second time.

But their bid to convince him to sign a new deal could be laid bare by the company that produced compelling fly-on-the-wall series about Manchester City, Tottenham and Leeds.

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