Raiola takes Twitter swipe at legend Scholes following criticism of Pogba displays
THE Paul Pogba situation descended into farce yesterday as his agent Mino Raiola claimed United great Paul Scholes ‘wouldn’t recognise a leader if he was in front of Sir Winston Churchill’.
Scholes has been a vocal critic of Pogba since he returned to United in 2016 and bemoaned the Frenchman’s performance in the 3-2 defeat at Brighton on Sunday, where he described Pogba as ‘really poor’ and ‘so inconsistent’.
Raiola, who allegedly offered Pogba to City earlier this year, bit back on Twitter with two tweets that referenced United executive vicechairman Ed Woodward’s search for a sporting director and claimed Scholes was trying to remain relevant.
The Italian said: “Some people need to talk for fear of being forgotten. Paul Scholes wouldn’t recognize a leader if he was in front of Sir Winston Churchill.”
In a second tweet, Raiola added: “Paul Scholes should become sports director and advise Woodward to sell Pogba. Would be sleepless nights to find Pogba a new club.” Raiola tagged Pogba’s Twitter handle in both tweets.
Last week, Scholes said: “What we do know is that Paul needs to perform more often than he is doing. We all know the talent he’s got; great strength, great ability, an athlete. But he’s only doing it one in every three or four games. If you’re going to challenge for a title I just don’t think that can happen.
“Captain’s armband? I thought that the minute we signed him he should have been made captain. Give him some responsibility as a young
player.” But after the Brighton debacle, Scholes opined: “There’s a lack of leaders in the team, that’s why we thought Paul Pogba might be the ideal candidate to be that leader but he wasn’t there tonight. He had another really poor game. He’s so inconsistent.”
Mourinho defended Pogba amid criticism from Scholes after the win over Everton in January. Scholes claimed Pogba had ‘strolled’ through the goalless draw with Southampton two days earlier.
“The only thing Paul Scholes does is to criticise,” Mourinho explained.
“Paul [Pogba] tries to do his best all the time and sometimes he plays very well, sometimes he plays well, sometimes he doesn’t play so well, it’s not Paul’s fault that he made much more money than Paul Scholes, it’s not Paul Pogba’s fault, it’s just the way football is.”