Paul Pogba’s Man United status enjoyed as big a turnaround as the club’s fortunes last season, battling injury to go from unfavoured luxury to midfield lynchpin. In a post-game interview, Pogba said even though he was a Manchester United player, a "question mark" remained over his future. This error of judgement had reset the goodwill he'd built up and the general verdict in a post-game webchat this writer conducted was that United should sell him.That's quite clearly not going to happen and it would be a terrible idea, anyway. Whether Pogba still wants a new challenge or not we can only guess, as he's not publicly addressed the situation, but he's shown a commitment to and happiness at United recently.Speaking early in July, Pogba said: “You realise when you’re out for a long time how much you really enjoy playing football and how much you love it. It was a brutal schedule for a player who had played just 662 minutes in the entire season until it was suspended in mid-March.The coronavirus-enforced suspension allowed Pogba to return and have an impact in 2019/20, but United didn't see the very best of him in the final six weeks of the season. Zinedine Zidane is a long-time admirer of his fellow countryman and has echoed Solskjaer's wishes by making it clear that the most welcome edition to the Bernabeu midfield would be Pogba, who has hardly ever firmly denied his interest in a move to Spain.For a long time that looked like the best option for both United and Pogba, but under Solskjaer there is a different horizon, and now the time has come for the player to repay the 47-year-old's trust by staying at Manchester United and staying focussed on the task at hand, which is to legitimately challenge for trophies.
Gary Neville labelled it "embarrassing" on co-commentary and social media didn't react well. Pogba started for Manchester United in their opening game in the Premier League on 11 August 2019, providing two assists in the club's 4–0 home win over Chelsea. The relationship between Paul Pogba and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is paying dividends on the pitch - Reuters / Peter Powell His time sidelined was spent flooding his social media accounts with sunkissed training sessions in Dubai, which did nothing to thaw the icy relationship with fans who accused him of being more interested in self-promotion than any sort of team effort.His March recovery coincided with football being postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, but the enforced hiatus couldn't have come at a better time for the 27-year-old.The arrival of Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon in the January window, and the Portuguese midfielder’s record of scoring or providing for 15 goals in his first 14 games, could have signalled the end for the Frenchman’s chances in United’s customary central midfield three, especially with the form of stalwart Nemanja Matic, academy starlet Scott McTominay and Brazilian Fred.Instead, Bruno’s scintillating form and the consequent heaps of plaudits allowed a man who enjoys a perennial spotlight whether on the pitch or on his myriad social media sites to settle into a more anonymous midfield role after the Premier League restarted in June.Free from the burden of expectation brought on by his de facto dual position as United’s sole leader and creator, Pogba has been afforded less scrutiny from fans, and has enjoyed a more relaxed role in the middle of the park being able to distribute, although not dictate and dominate, more freely from midfield.In his nine games after the restart until the end of the season, Pogba notched his first and goal of the campaign in perhaps United's best post-pandemic pause performance - a 3-0 win away to Aston Villa - and provided two assists. Pogba’s absence is really being felt in United’s midfield. Manchester United. The 2019/20 English Premier League was a funny old affair: a three-month break due to the outbreak of Covid-19, football played in empty stadiums, Liverpool winning a Premier League, VAR becoming the simultaneous sworn enemy and best friend of almost every club from week to week, and Paul Pogba being a productive part of Manchester United’s midfield.Of all the surprises and setbacks suffered in the most intriguing and obscure season in the postwar era, perhaps the last of those was the most unforeseen and unlikely. To go back to the incident against West Ham for a moment, Pogba should obviously have left his hands down, but it was a split-second judgement.It was one he got wrong, but this was no example of laziness, or of not caring about United. A month later, Pogba signed for Major League Soccer club Atlanta United FC, … 06:48 GMT, Aug 09, 2020 Paul Pogba celebrates with Manchester United teammates after securing a Champions League place on the final day of the season against Leicester City - Reuters / MICHAEL REGAN But let's not read too much into that, it's the stock answer for footballers when they're put under the spotlight with questions like that. Pogba is going nowhere.The 27-year-old was gushing about his happiness at playing in this side during Project Restart, only to then dodge a question on his future a few days later. Next Generation 2019: 60 of the best young talents in world football Eidur Gudjohnsen’s son, the new Paul Pogba and Barça’s Ansu Fati are among our … Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you
That is still to come.There were signs of promise in his midfield link-up with Fernandes and Pogba has always been a footballer who adds the gloss to an outstanding side. "He also spoke glowingly about what he was seeing in front of him and the quality of United's attacking football, as well as the way Bruno Fernandes, Mason Greenwood, Pogba played his part in United's run of impressive performances when the campaign resumed, scoring against Aston Villa and setting up Having not played for almost seven months Pogba played 847 minutes of football across 11 games in just 38 days. He has no desire to be the leader who will drag everyone up with him.