POGBA CAN GO
Mourinho ready to sell off his £89m flop
JOSE MOURINHO is ready to let Paul Pogba leave Manchester United in a sensational move this summer. The Old Trafford manager has run out of patience with the club’s record signing and has included Pogba on a list of players who can be sold as he attempts to close the gap on new champions Manchester City.
The prospect of Pogba leaving two years after returning to the club for £89million has moved a step closer since Pep Guardiola revealed 11 days ago that the player was offered to City in January.
Pogba’s relationship with Mourinho has deteriorated rapidly this season and the 25-year-old was substituted again in Sunday’s home defeat to West Brom. The Frenchman has been left on the bench or taken off in seven of his last 11 games.
It is uncertain whether he will be in the team for tomorrow’s trip to Bournemouth or, more importantly, what is now United’s biggest game of the season against Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.
Mourinho warned that he will not allow reputations or price tags to cloud his thinking for Wembley after admitting that some players had blown their chance by the dismal showing against West Brom.
‘What is the criteria for a manager to choose a team?’ said the United manager (right), who put Pogba on the bench for both legs of the Champions League tie against Sevilla. ‘I only know one criteria. It’s the way they play. It’s the only way I can select players. ‘Or do you want me to go for the price they cost, or their salary, or their beautiful face? The only way is to go with performance. ‘If I play a player against Bournemouth and the player is phenomenal, he plays the semi-final. It’s an opportunity for people to play and to try to get a place in the team for Spurs. ‘Some of the guys that played today (against West Brom) don’t have a place in that team.’ There is no doubt Pogba has become a distraction; an expensive square peg in a round hole who does not meet his manager’s demands to play with discipline in the best interests of the team. In his first season back at United, Pogba compensated for this through his understanding with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. This season, however, Mourinho’s frustration with Pogba has become more apparent since the two were involved in a heated touchline exchange in the loss to Tottenham at Wembley in January.
It is perhaps no coincidence that it followed United’s signing of Alexis Sanchez, with Pogba said to have had his nose put out of joint by the Chilean’s £600,000-a-week deal.
Ego has played a part and Mourinho is not alone in becoming exasperated by the Pogba sideshow; the dance moves, rehearsed handshakes and extensive use of social media.
In December, Sportsmail revealed two of United’s support staff had been despatched to the player’s house in Hale Barns to get him out of bed after he failed to show up for training.
In seven out of 12 games since their exchange at Spurs, Pogba has either come off the bench, been replaced or not played at all, culminating in his early withdrawal from Sunday’s defeat by West Brom.
In public, Mourinho responded to talk in France that Pogba was unhappy and assessing his future as ‘lies and bulls**t’.
In private, they held showdown talks and Mourinho laid down the law after the star said he wanted to play on the left of a new 4-3-3 formation, to give him more freedom.
Pogba missed the next game at Huddersfield with a mystery illness that did not stop him from training at Carrington the following day.
Mourinho turned to Scott McTominay as the 21-year-old Scotland international emerges as a more reliable midfield partner for Nemanja Matic.
At first, the manager defended Pogba on the basis that he missed two months of the season with a hamstring injury and a further three games when he was sent off at Arsenal in December.
But Mourinho has been less diplomatic in recent weeks after France coach Didier Deschamps confided Pogba could not be happy with his situation.
When asked to explain Pogba’s loss of form, Mourinho said: ‘Ask him what he thinks about it’.
After a man-of-the-match display in the Manchester derby, Mourinho urged Pogba to show more consistency. Instead, he witnessed another flaky display against West Brom and took Pogba off in the 58th minute, saying he had been one of the ‘masters in complication’, trying to be too elaborate.
Mourinho maintains that his decision was influenced by Pogba’s yellow card in the first half but it felt like a convenient excuse. On the other four occasions that Pogba was booked this season, he completed the game.
As United prepare to face Tottenham at Wembley again on Saturday, Mourinho’s relationship with Pogba is back under the microscope.
If he does try to offload him, the manager could face opposition from United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, not least because the club already have to find two central midfielders to replace Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini.
Selling the likes of Matteo Darmian, Daley Blind, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw would be no surprise. Pogba is another matter altogether.