Pogba leaves Manchester United with a £ 3.8m loyalty bonus after his disastrous return to Old Trafford, but the World Cup winner is not the only culprit.
Paul Pogba and Man Utd are separated again (
Image: Simon Stacpoole / Offside / Offside via Getty Images)
In three words, the official Manchester United website summed up why the club is in danger of becoming a mockery of English football.
Thanks Paul. For what, exactly? Thanks for a million hits on social media, but only one or two on the field. Thank you for costing us more than £ 200 million in transfer costs, agent salaries and fees, while only showing what you can do in a game or two. Thank you for exhausting yourself for almost nothing, for recovering the best part of £ 90 million to re-sign and then disappear again, for nothing. Thanks for the latest insult of a £ 3.8 million loyalty bonus. Thank you for saving your best football for France.
The website urged people to relive the highlights of Pogba’s career at Manchester United. And if you had 30 seconds or so left over, you could have done just that. There was a goal in a second tier European final, that second half at the Etihad … and that was it. Somehow, United’s social media team – apparently the most important team at Old Trafford – managed to chain Pogba’s highlights in two minutes; some effort, that. Let’s be honest: Pogba’s second spell at Old Trafford, which lasted six seasons, was an unmitigated disaster.
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One of the greatest players in the world – and, make no mistake, HE is a great player, a truly great player – has been a footnote to the club for the best of his footballing life. Imagine if Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola had put their hands and mind on Pogba. Don’t tell me Pogba has less talent than Kevin De Bruyne or Mohamed Salah, because he’s not. He was reunited by chance with a club that was more interested in clicks than kicks.
Pogba has been unfortunate with the injury, it is true, and there has been no lack of commitment on his part. But he has also been an impressive symbol of all that is wrong with today’s Manchester United. Twenty-nine Premier League goals and 41 assists in six seasons is not the kind of performance an elite player’s club should get.
Paul Pogba proved to be an elite player at the 2018 World Cup (
Image:
Getty Images)
He’s been an asset to Instagram, and that’s about it. And the player himself is only to blame for this, in United’s football brain, he never seemed to have a plan to start and never seemed to have a plan for him at any time during the last six seasons.
It’s almost as if they bought trinket players and made up their minds as they progressed. It’s almost as if signing is the most important thing. Remember Alexis Sanchez on the piano? Remember the #pogback? Well, now it’s #poggone and unfortunately one of the best players in the world at one of the biggest clubs in the world will be remembered as little more than a hashtag. And for that, both the player and the club have been to blame.
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