THE TRUCE HURTS
Jose and Pogba must put differences aside
THE toxic relationship between Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba is threatening to wreck Manchester United’s season.
Pogba wants to leave Old Trafford for Barcelona and Mourinho appears quite happy to push him closer to the exit door.
But until the January transfer window opens – or more likely next summer – they somehow have to work out an uneasy truce in a bid to pull United out of their early season crisis.
Already eight points off the pace in the Premier League title race and out of the Carabao Cup, it will only get worse for the club if the dressing room atmosphere is marred by tension and divisions.
Footage of Mourinho and Pogba on the training field yesterday only confirmed how frosty their ‘cold war’ is with the latter appearing to react with dismay to a remark made by his manager before they went their separate ways.
Many United followers would prefer to keep the Frenchman rather than Mourinho given the way the team is playing.
But sources close to the player suggest that he wants to leave regardless of who the manager is.
Inconsistent
After all, it has always been the career plan mapped out by his agent Mino Raiola to come back to England for a few years then move to one of Spain’s big two.
Barca confirmed their interest – and agreed in principle a package with Raiola – during the summer as Pogba basked in the glory of France’s World Cup triumph.
Selling their star player, record signing and marketing icon will feel like a huge failure for United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, as well as Mourinho, after the effort and money they put into bringing home their ‘prodigal son’ from Juventus for a then world-record fee of £89m.
But after Pogba made clear his desire to leave and the manager’s response in stripping him of the vice-captaincy, there seems to be no alternative for the club but to sell.
Keeping the hugely talented but inconsistent midfielder undermines Mourinho and carries the threat of destabilising the dressing room with the resulting negative impact on performances and results.
Pogba, 25, has been a popular figure with the players and the breakdown of his relationship with the Portuguese puts them in a difficult position. They will not want to take sides but cannot avoid the tension in the camp. Mourinho had to reassert his authority after Pogba’s thinly veiled criticism of his tactics following their home draw with Wolves at the weekend.
If he had been allowed to get away with it, what is to stop other players from having a go?
Ashley Young, made skipper against Derby for Tuesday’s League Cup exit, admitted United could not match the Championship side’s intensity.
He said: “When you play these games you have to show that intensity and go further than the opposition. We didn’t do that and we got punished.”
Pogba is too good a player to leave out and the defeat to Derby underlined United need his quality in midfield.
There may be few candidates to pick from after a trouble-hit start to the campaign but he has been United’s best player so far this season, even though the stats show they win a bigger percentage of matches without him.
Such is the form of Liverpool and Man City, the title already looks beyond them but they now need Mourinho and Pogba to establish an uneasy truce to keep alive the minimum target required of finishing in the top four.
If they do not qualify for the Champions League, it will not just be Pogba who leaves but also Mourinho.
And the club – six years after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson – will be back at square one.