He wants to leave but since he can’t atleast until the summer he’s decided to just focus on having a good season.If he has a poor run of form leading upto may nobody may be willing to sign him...
"I think we can win the title if we focus!" Paul Pogba Sky Sports interview
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Obviously the things he says are aimed to ultimately get the best move/wage for his client, but I do think people go overboard with thinking the player vets everything he says. He knows Pogba is unhappy with the amount of success that he's had here and wants to leave, so Raiola makes statements that he thinks will facilitate that. The player doesn't necessarily agree with every single thing the agent says. There's been twice now where he's said something and within 24 hours he's kind of walked it back, indicating that Pogba was probably unhappy with those particular statements.
People have said stuff like this for ages on here. This whole ‘mouthpiece’ stuff is likely crap.
Simply put, it is unlikely Raiola would say that Pogba wants to leave if he didn’t want to leave. In that sense, he is likely saying things that Pogba agrees with. What that does NOT mean though, is that Pogba has instructed him to insult his employer in the media. Raiola clearly doesn’t give a shit. I’m not saying Pogba doesn’t/didn’t want to leave - but the implication that Raiola and him discussed and agreed to insult United publicly seems far fetched to me.
Like, footballers want to leave their clubs sometimes. For various reasons. Which is why there are hundreds of transfers every summer. Mkhitaryan wanted to leave Dortmund, Raiola was obviously acting on his instruction there. However, are we going to just simplistically say that because Raiola is his agent, that Mkhitaryan instructed him to throw chairs in the Dortmund office, for example? Because obviously, he couldn’t have done that without his client’s agreement?
The idea that any word uttered by Raiola was scripted by Pogba seems like a convenient tool to use to me. Again, I’m not saying his client hasn’t informed him of an intention to leave, but he may as well represent himself if he basically walks his agent through what he should do and say in order to get it done.
Of course, those are the only options on the table.
All he has to do is come out and say that Rialo's crap doesn't represent his view and it'll shut everyone up. It's not that hard to do and yet he hasn't said it publicly that his agent was in the wrong.
The amount of mental gymnastics his fans will go to absolve him of blame is ridiculous.
Agreed Paul, we need to focus and cut out distractions, like the agent of our club record signing repeatedly saying in public that the aforementioned player is unhappy and wants to leave at the earliest available opportunity.
I know all that. And I don't mind players wanting more money etc. It's all a part of the game. Having said that, I see no reason to keep a player who's mind already is elsewhere.
There is absolutely no need for an agent to be so public and direct as Raiola is. And there is no way he would say those things if Pogba didn't agree. I don't give a shit about the tone(
). It's the fact that it's happened in the first place that's annoying. Pogba's not the first player to play this game, though. It's too bad for him that he's not nearly as important as he was pre Bruno.It's Rialo's MO.I know all that. And I don't mind players wanting more money etc. It's all a part of the game. Having said that, I see no reason to keep a player who's mind already is elsewhere.
There is absolutely no need for an agent to be so public and direct as Raiola is. And there is no way he would say those things if Pogba didn't agree. I don't give a shit about the tone(
Cause a big scene to make the stay untenable so his players and him get a transfer of their own picking.
Comes across honest and mature, hope he will step up and get is over the line. He can then go to the slower league in Italy next summer.
I never claimed that either. The fact that he wants to leave and is OK with the agent going public is enough for me to want Pogba out. If he was our best player by a comfortable margin then I'd maybe suck it up and deal with it. But that's not the case.
You talk about ‘mental gymnastics’, but this is a silly/naive scenario that has been presented before. ‘If Pogba doesn’t hate United, easy, just come out and issue a statement to denounce your agent’. Like really? Is that what you would expect a player to typically do? That’s not how things work at all.
And Pogba doesn’t have to comment on Raiola’s view anyway. Raiola’s view, for a start, is likely not false in that Poga DID want to leave. That in itself is not a problem, that is the business of football. My understanding is that the outrage has been on the offence taken by United fans at how Raiola speaks about us. By your post, your expectation seems to have been for PP to issue a statement saying’I disagree that I am not the property of Manchester United, as said by my agent’ or ‘I disagree that Manchester United could make Messi look bad at the moment’ etc. These are the comments that have enraged everyone. Why would Pogba come out and speak for another man? He didn’t say the words. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to leave, but he is not expected to come out and apologise if Mino insults Ole, that is just fecking ridiculous.
I don't think Pogba's mind is genuinely elsewhere. A lot of people seem to keep forgetting that the club has not offered a new contract. If anything, it seems to be Utd, who by buying two players for his position (Bruno and VDB), and constantly flirting with rumours of a third (Grealish), and not offering a contract, have their mind elsewhere.I know all that. And I don't mind players wanting more money etc. It's all a part of the game. Having said that, I see no reason to keep a player who's mind already is elsewhere.
There is absolutely no need for an agent to be so public and direct as Raiola is. And there is no way he would say those things if Pogba didn't agree. I don't give a shit about the tone(
From a business perspective, you can't say there was no need for Raiola to be vocal about it. The objective was to put pressure on the club to offer a new contract. From the loyal fan's perspective, you might view what he did as being terrible but that's why you need to appreciate that Raiola is there to deal with the business end of things and that requires a certain level of ruthlessness.
Exactly. The pessimistic part of me says this is typical Pogba - he is now more than happy to speak up and get as much screen time as possible because we're doing well. Imagine if we win the league, people who don't watch United will probably think he's been a key player when in reality he lost his place and has only recently been playing well. Unless he comes out and say 'I want to stay' we can safely assume nothing has changed.
That statement from Paul Pogba, after his 90min performance against Burnley where he played with all the heart you would expect of a committed red, is very encouraging, I hope he leads the way, when he's on-song the rest will follow. Come on you Reds!
You have no idea wherher he is uncomfortable with Mino’s strategy or his words. Raiola has never called a Pogba press conference. He does interviews and is sometimes asked about Pogba and doesn’t mince his words. As he has shown to not do so on a range of other topics and with a range of other footballers. The player of course would have expressed a desire to leave, but Mino is a grown man, significantly older one than Pogba, possibly richer too, and I doubt that his words are controlled by a footballer. Some of his comments haven’t even been about Pogba, they have just been about the state of United in general. Other times he has spoken negatively about United in relation to Haaland’s move. If, of course, you are in the group that sees Pogba as some sort of anti-Christ, you would of course conclude that this is all Pogba’s bidding.
Also, if Pogba doesn’t want to sign a contract and leave, that could be done bery easily. He doesn’t need a public storm to do that. Raiola’s words have made him no more likely to leave. In football, as is always the case, wither you leave when your contract is up, or another club matches your valuation and you leave then. Raiola’s words achieve nothing to help Pogba move, except Unite some fans (and pundits) against him.
Well I guess that is one way to look at this interview.
All he needs to do is say his agent's views of the club situation doesn't reflect his own.
It's as simple as that.
The fact that Rialo and his brother has gone public for years about Pogba's situation without any rebuttal from him makes it look like he's agreeing with them, especially when he has gone public in his desire to leave the club which supports their statements that the club is mishandling his situation.
He is without a doubt a fair weather footballer, I won’t judge as I am certainly a fair weather golfer!
But seriously, Pogba is not a player that picks a team up when they are down but he certainly can make a difference when we are on the charge.
You’ve just repeated what you said. I’ve asked whether, realistically, anyone else would be expected to do so in such circumstances.
I’ll also repeat that, Pogba and Raiola are grown men. Raiola has had his time to speak in his own interviews, and Pogba has spoken in his own. If you require public statement to show his views, you could easily look at what he HAS said when he’s spoken himself, rather what he apparently hasn’t. He has spoken for himself on a few occasions about his views for United. Why would he now be obligated to speak for his agent too? Raiola has said his views, and when asked, Pogba has said his own. And they are not the same. Which should be all you need. Why would anyone want or need to say ‘Paul, your agent said that top players shouldn’t come to United. Do YOU think top players shouldn’t come to United?’. It’s fecking ridiculous. He has been asked about his future, and has generally been diplomatic. But he is jot required to publicly comment on Raiola’s comments on anything other than his future. Beyond ‘are you happy Paul?’ - why on Earth would he be expected to provide comment on anything else Mino says? Mino can speak for himself.
United are not going public with this, though. There's the difference. It's a bit hard to sign players without it being picked up
Not sure if it works like that. In fact, I'd argue that this had the completely opposite effect.
Of course he's comfortable with Mino going public. Exactly how he conducts himself or his tone of voice is probably not decided by Pogba, but the main message most certainly is!
Well that is sort of my point! Anything that is made public is pretty much all about image and how you as a player wish to present yourself or your situation. And Raiola would never publicly say that Pogba wants to leave if that wasn't the case and if Pogba didn't want it to be public. And I have a problem with that.
Have to say that was one of the best interviews with one of our players I've seen in a long time
good watch
good watch
Using the royal "we" here.
I’m not disputing that Pogba has wanted to leave. I am saying that Raiola’s decisions to insult United/Ole have been decisions of his own, and cannot simply be interpreted as ‘comments Pogba gave his blessings to’ on the basis that Raiola is Pogba’s agent.United are not going public with this, though. There's the difference. It's a bit hard to sign players without it being picked up
Not sure if it works like that. In fact, I'd argue that this had the completely opposite effect.
Of course he's comfortable with Mino going public. Exactly how he conducts himself or his tone of voice is probably not decided by Pogba, but the main message most certainly is!
Well that is sort of my point! Anything that is made public is pretty much all about image and how you as a player wish to present yourself or your situation. And Raiola would never publicly say that Pogba wants to leave if that wasn't the case and if Pogba didn't want it to be public. And I have a problem with that.
He’s had plenty of spells where he’s been this good, actually better.
He’s an incredibly talented player. I’ll get shite for saying it but we should have built the team around him imo.
In summary, as I’m a little confused reading this thread - but is this interview seen as a bad thing or something? Or is this just Pograge.
I don't agree with this at all. He's wanted even though he barely played for an entire season. A few months off poor ish form wouldn't change that, I feel like it's fans that tend to be that fickle and short sighted rather than clubs. Juve clearly want him back and I think he'll have a place there regardless of his form.
What he is doing is being professional and I don't doubt he does have strong feelings for the club but ultimately he is 27, he only has a handful of years to win things and I don't blame him for wanting to move on. We've been much better in the last 11 months than the rest of his time at the club and it may well be that the team can push on and get to a place he wants to be at - winning things.
The whole 'playing for a move' thing though, it gets said loads and I've never really seen or heard anything to suggest clubs will pull out of a player like pogba based on some form. He's at a level where you pretty much want him or can't afford him. If anything, some poor form may well just increase their bargaining position but that's just pure speculation on my part, I've never been involved or privy to these negotiations and how they work.
It stuns me that people question his ability.
A big part of the problem he's had is a lack of quality throughout our team. He's been double and triple marked out of games because he was literally the only creative outlet we had. No one cares about leaving Pereira alone to double up on Pogba and no matter how good he is, we've been in such a poor place, squad wise, that I don't think he's been able to perform at his best. Couple that with bad games and form that most players have and you end up with a bit of an anti climax of a signing.
I would still love to keep Pogba, his skill set and ability aren't easy to come across at all and I think people skim over a lot of what he does because they look out for all the Hollywood stuff. He's actually really good at winning the balm back, defensive headers away, intercepting etc and I don't think anyone in the team has his passing range. Bruno is the closest but I don't think he's as good as Pogba on the ball, they are different types of players and it's a real shame we may not have the pair of them for an extended period of time.
Of course he agrees with their statement that he wants to leave and I think any fan who objectively looks at the guy situation will see reasons with why he wants to leave, it's not rocket science.
He came back to the club from Juve at 23 when he was highly regarded in the football world as one of the best talents in football, having won 4 Serie A titles, 2 Copa Italia and playing in a champions league final, think is pretty obvious over the last 4 years that the club has let the guy down. This is not to absolve him of all blames or in anyway imply that the club should bend over and beyond to satisfy him, is just that we have failed to build a team competitive enough to challenge City(Think they where the team to beat then). I believe Woodward in 2016 did genuinely commit to building a competitive team to challenge for top honours but he just went about it the wrong way, signing the wrong set of players and manager and allocating our moderate budget (compared to City) wrongly, which set us back a few years.
What this culminated in is that Pogba had to play in a United team that could not deliver on the promises made to him by the club when he was signing and I hold no grudge towards him if he intends to move on. He is 27 now and would be 28 by march, a player of his quality deserves to be in a competitive team and if I was him I would feel the same way, he probably had ambitions of being one of the greats in the game after he his done. Now this does not mean he might not reconsider his position if he senses we are moving in the right direction and I would say as of now we do seem to be.
I'm also quite relaxed about his situation now, before I feared there was no player of his quality to replace him thankfully Grealish appeared so if he stays great, as a committed Pogba in a top team would be an absolute joy to watch and if he decides to move also great just please bring in Grealish. And for both scenarios we absolutely have to bring in a top DM to move on from the limited Fred, McTominay axis and play our best players in advance positions.( Let's be the top team and make the opposition worry about us for once).
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Now bearing in mind that I actually quite like Pogba as a player, I didn't like the interview personally.
I haven't watched it, but I read his dialogue, and honestly he could have been referring to tennis and I wouldn't have known the difference.
What I mean by that, is that a vast majority of it was very individualistic.
That's not necessarily wrong or a bad thing, because a majority of players do it, but I still rather dislike it.
It just doesn't strike me the right way.
I haven't watched it, but I read his dialogue, and honestly he could have been referring to tennis and I wouldn't have known the difference.
What I mean by that, is that a vast majority of it was very individualistic.
That's not necessarily wrong or a bad thing, because a majority of players do it, but I still rather dislike it.
It just doesn't strike me the right way.
And I'm not disputing that.
My "philosophy" is simple: if a player wants to leave, then we should in pretty much every case let them leave. No hard feelings, that's just the way the world works. But when you give your agent green light(and possibly even actively ask him) to go public with it, then you lose a lot of my respect. Regardless of the agent's tone.
People make mistakes and it's OK to change your mind, but you're gonna have to work hard to redeem yourself. Pogba has probably peaked already, so I don't know if it's worth offering him a new contract. The best case scenario is if he performs well for the remainder of the season and is sold to Italy/Spain/France for a decent fee.
I'm not sure how you can make the distinction that they are grown men and speak for themselves when one of them has the power to terminate the relationship at any point he wants. Raiola is employed by Pogba to LITERALLY represent him in a professional sense. The power dynamic between the two is plain to see. Raiola doesn't say anything about Pogba and Utd that Pogba doesn't feel himself. The fact his brother was chirping up for the best part of two years too and without any pushback doesn't reflect well on him either.
Pogba went for the media's throat when that rumour regarding him retiring from the French national team came out. There was nothing stopping him from doing similar wrt Utd. If he truly loved the club, he wouldn't allow his agent to denigrate the club without rebuke. In fact, you don't even have to go that far back in time to see Pogba defending Raiola almost straight away when that SportBild article came out about him supposedly pressuring Raiola to get a move sorted or he'll sack him. He sprang into action then and said it was fake news. Why not the same energy for the club that pays your wages and you apparently love? Empty phrases and platitudes like "I fight for my team mates" mean nothing, and don't really say anything beyond the generic. He should have put Raiola in his place if what he said wasn't in line with Pogba's thoughts. Radio silence on the matter just screams complicity to me.
I like the guy, and I do think he's a top, top player on his day but the hassle and baggage he brings with his agent just isn't worth it. I'll take the good with the bad when it comes to Pogba, but the last 5 years have shown to me that it's better to have low expectations and be pleasantly surprised, rather than expect consistent excellence. If he can help us guarantee Top 4 as well as maybe a trophy in the FA Cup/EL then it's job done as far as I'm concerned and I wish him all the best for when he eventually leaves.
This must be a nightmare for Ole.
I hazard a guess that Pogba is a fairly emotional lad. It is no surprise he wanted to leave, the team was crap with players like Smalling, Jones, Lingard, Pereira, etc and everything and everyone was focused on him; Hell, I would have wanted out at that point.
I think he just wants to compete for titles and not be the scapegoat when a team full of mediocrity does poor. I have never seen him work harder then the last few games and no matter what happens in the summer, we need a focused and motivated Pogba to get the most out of this season. My guess is that if we finish 2ed let alone win the title he stays.
But it is in his best interest not to say anything as he did\does want to leave the club. He might love the club but he also has to look after his own career and win a few honours when he is done.
Pogba can never do enough, on or off the field it seems.
That's fine and I don't begrudge that at all. Like I said before, it's in the interests of everyone to sever ties amicably. Raiola potentially sabotaged any prospect of that happening and in the process also potentially derailed our whole season on the eve of the biggest game of the season at that point. That is indefensible, especially when you are said to "love" the club. It's only because of Ole's fantastic man and squad management that we came through that episode in the way we have.
My issue with the post I quoted was not that Pogba wants to leave. It's patently clear he does. My issue is the mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance of people saying Pogba loves the club and that Raiola is speaking for himself rather than Pogba. Because the actions and inactions of both say the complete opposite. It's a shame it hasn't worked out but better players than Pogba have left Utd in the past, and no doubt better players than him will leave in the future and the club continues to exist and will no doubt continue to do so in the future.
Totally agree, including also a long term injury and Covid. Some will interpret it as though we are excusing him totally, he still owns his portion of the blame in his inconsistency but it's no doubt been affected by the things you mentioned.
When he first arrived he was our best player by a distance, his numbers reflected this as well. Every team tried to mark him out of the game and the rest of the team lacked any real quality at that time.
I've said it before but we needed to go all out for a top level DM to either partner Pogba or allow him to play further forward in a free role. Now we have strengthened our midfield it's given us options and allows us to play him further forward and without the shackles of having to play more defensively and we are seeing the result of that in his performances.
He's a versatile and crazy talented player, unique with his strength and athleticism whilst still being skilful and creative. He has his limitations defensively and has always needed the appropriate cover in midfield to cover for that, playing him deep with an ageing Matic was always going to limit our return on investment when it comes to Pogba.
I'm a fan of Paul on and off the field but it has gotten to the point where we can not ignore his agent anymore; talking crap about the club, the manager and doing these things before important games. Pogba himself has responsability here.
So you don't understand how Pogba (who's his own man) says something, and Raiola, who's another person and also his agent(a well known, money grabbing and mouthy one) says something else? Isn't that a bit odd how you or we can't see it from the outside?
It certainly is
Well it was 80 percent tongue in cheek.
The other 10 percent is me laughing about Paul Pogba and focus. The other 10 percent was remembering Pogbas dear Uncle, namely, Patrice Evra and his pre match press releases about winning things and us subsequently losing.
I’d just prefer it if anyone asked about our title hopes says “ we just focus on the next game”.