The Pogba PROBLEM
Star midfielder causing friction within the United dressing room
SUPER is often the appropriate prefix for Paul Pogba. A superstar at a superclub in a supercar. The same goes for his representative, Mino Raiola, one of that cluster of superagents whose wealth is astronomical and power even greater.
And herein lies a healthy portion of Pogba’s problem. Jose Mourinho is known to have held reservations about Raiola’s management of the midfielder earlier this season and that sense of unease has heightened in recent weeks amid Alexis Sanchez’s arrival and a worrying dip in form.
Mourinho has been agitated by Raiola’s visits to the club’s training ground. Nice and familiar when United are flying, an annoyance when they are not.
Senior players have noticed, too, disturbed by Pogba’s demeanour at Carrington and left wondering if he is worth the fuss. It needs a wise head to sit him down. These are testing times, regardless of whether the world’s most expensive midfielder performs against Chelsea today.
That everything surrounding the player is so grandiose grates on a manager who, allowing for ever more frequent public disputes, usually places the common goal of his squad ahead of anything else.
That club staff had to be deployed to fetch Pogba from his bed after failing to report for training before Christmas did not go down well. Was this the attitude of a man who wanted to maximise his potential? What, you wonder, has Raiola been telling him before and since?
The friction which bubbled under became public days after Sanchez rocked up with a monstrous pay packet dwarfing the Frenchman’s. Mourinho hooked Pogba with 27 minutes to go at Tottenham after effectively being talked back to.
The game had already gone, United two down and aimless going forward, and it is widely accepted that Pogba did not do enough defensively at Wembley.
Mourinho has twice overlooked him since, preferring 21-year-old Scott McTominay instead.
Mourinho spoke ahead of what will be a huge fixture against his old employers with his best outfield player, plonkled on the bench at Sevilla — arguably United’s biggest game so far this season — until Ander Herrera’s 17th-minute injury. To watch Pogba warm-up was to view an unhappy man, wandering purposelessly and lacking focus, misplacing simple passes in the drills.
Raiola has watched all of this with interest. That Real Madrid have been sounded out over the level of their interest is frankly astonishing for a player costing £89million only 18 months into a five-year contract.
Yet, with all these situations, there is an undercurrent and Jorge Mendes, another agent with the super prefix, has considered the possibility of adding Pogba to his stable of clients.
Whether that is attainable is another matter given Pogba’s loyalty to Raiola, who has moved Henrikh Mkhitaryan in and out of Old Trafford.
But perhaps it goes some way to contextualising the issues behind the scenes. As an aside, Ajax revealed last week that Mendes had contacted them about Patrick Kluivert’s son, Justin. His agent? Mino Raiola. The games may well be afoot between the two rivals.
The strongest relationship Raiola holds at United is undoubtedly with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. Woodward had been interested in signing Pogba two years prior to actually managing it and lines of communication were open.
They also remain open between Mourinho and Pogba now but the bond is strained, certainly at its worst since he re-joined in 2016. The heated discussions in private are evidence of that. So too the debate over his best position, which the manager has engaged with, and the public inferences surrounding his lifestyle.
Roy Keane took a stab at that in the week, saying: ‘Off the field, he has a big personality — social media, his haircuts, the cars he drives. He needs to bring that on the pitch.’
The design of Pogba’s hair has no bearing on his performances but what he needs is to perhaps learn a lesson from McTominay. He mastered the basics and Nemanja Matic spelled out his manager’s modus operandi.
‘In every team he wants to have a good midfield,’ said Matic. ‘Jose likes players who can control the game and give balance to the team. I’m trying to give my best. If this is enough I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him, but I’m happy because I’m playing almost every game.’
Matic’s workload will undoubtedly be heavy this afternoon. Herrera marked Eden Hazard out of this fixture last April — the first time Chelsea had not registered a shot on target in a league game for ten years — but a hamstring injury will see him absent for weeks.
Scrutiny will be on Pogba, set for a recall, even more given the defensive responsibility required should they play three in midfield.
‘Ander’s job on Hazard was important,’ said Mourinho. ‘He did an amazing job, but (these are) different matches, conditions, circumstances, different players.’
The circumstances seemed to have changed for Pogba, too, even if the situation remains salvageable.