Pogba: We’re rebuilding the Fergie way!
MIDFIELDER SAYS CLUB EYEING RETURN TO GLORY YEARS
PAUL Pogba believes Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is building a team in the image of Sir Alex Ferguson’s title winners.
The legendary manager lifted 38 trophies in 26 years at Old Trafford, delivering the Premier League title in his final season in 2013.
The top-flight triumph remains the most recent in United’s history, but the club head into tomorrow’s clash with Liverpool at Anfield top of the Premier League. It’s the first time they have been there this late in the season since that 2013 titlewinning campaign.
A serious title challenge has been long overdue for United and Pogba admits it has been difficult for the club to find their feet following Fergie’s retirement.
“They had a team that had been playing together for a long time,” said Pogba.
“Experienced, young players, new players that came in. A lot of superstars, legends that had been there from the academy.
“When you play together for a long time, you have a manager who has been there for a long time. That makes a difference.
“I think the Fergie time, he had been there for many years, knows the club, knows everything and when you have a person like this in the club who leaves, then obviously it is going to be a big impact.
“It did (have a big impact). But we are rebuilding this and we want to go back to this era.”
Pogba scored the goal against Burnley which took the Reds to the top of the table and is starting to find some form after a start to the season which was hampered by the midfielder catching Covid.
In December, the Frenchman admitted ‘he couldn’t run’ during the first game of the season against Crystal Palace, with the 27-year-old shocked by the lasting impact the virus had on his fitness.
Pogba understands how difficult the ‘nightmare’ has been for those less fortunate than him and admits it has given him a reality check over his own personal life.
While the former Juventus man has struggled with the mental ramifications of the pandemic, he says he has tried to learn a lesson from it and be more grateful for the extra family time which it has provided him with.
“It has been very hard,” Pogba said. “But, it depends how you want to take it.
“How you take it – you go to depression, you’re sad. Or you take it as a lesson, as a push.
“Okay, it has been hard, it has been dark, but behind the darkness there is always the light.
“So for how long? We don’t know. Sometimes you don’t see the luck that you have.
“We are very lucky we can play
football, very lucky that we can play football.
“When you’re injured you think ‘wow, now I see you can’t walk, you can’t do what you love, playing football, being with your team-mates.’ You can’t do a lot of things. Then you think about what is important. Football is important, but your health is more important.
“You learn that and you have to think about the world, think about everything.
“I thought about a lot of things, a lesson in life. For a lot of people it was a nightmare for everyone, not being able to be free.
“But, in my part I took it as a lesson. It was good because I could be with family, for a long time.
“As a football player you travel a lot. I have been playing, I have been injured, doing my stuff and sometimes you don’t see your kids growing.
“So when you have kids you want to see them every day growing, so it was a good thing for me to be full-time with them.”