Raiola: "I can say that it's over for Pogba at United"

The Original

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nah our eyes don’t lie. He had the stage here to cement himself as one of the worlds Best. He has been no where near the leagues best in the last 5 years.
Man Utd in the pst 5 years was the stage to cement himself as one of the world's best?

By playing with a bunch of mid-table calibre players? What are you talking about?
 

11101

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He'd 100% love to win the league with us, he loves the club, he wants us to be challenging for top trophies. If we drop off as a whole, sadly I've no doubt his form will as well though.
Agree with this. He loves the club and now we are looking good it's easy for him to play with a smile. We've also known for a long time he needs to play in a functioning setup to be effective, he's not somebody who can drag performances out of nothing. He has that now.

Unfortunately at the first sign of a dip in form we all know what's coming. I've kind of stopped caring what he does now. I'd like him to stay, and he would be a big loss if he goes, but we don't need him like we used to.
 

Poborsky's hair

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Whatever player we replace him with, it must be a flair player capable of individually winning a game. A lot of times weve seen us struggling against sides like Burnley. Winning those games, playing the most creative teams gets us the most points.

He´s becoming key player now, outperforming Bruno in third game in a row, as well as long out of form Rashford. Good thing is that if he goes on playing like this we can get some good money for him hopefully and perhaps invest in Grealish or a player with similar impact. Realistically if we time our sell well Villa should take 80mil for Grealish, as they will never get more in the current climate, contract length and form of the player and could get perhaps 50 mil for Pogba, which would mean only an investment of around 30mil, and even if the difference is 40mil. It´s still good and in wages we get some of the fee back in a few years.
 

Stacks

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Yeah has played like the Juventus player since Raiola opened his trap
Not sure about that. When he was a young boy at Juve he played with youthful exuberance, aggression and put himself about a lot.

He plays very well when he's not burdened with massive expectations, he adds so much to a well organised team. He's a luxury player in that sense, you need to have a good team to fully reap the benefits of having Pogba, he's not a man to carry a team on his back.
Facts
 

P-Nut

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Unfortunately, I cannot see this, and in many ways, would prefer him to move on, as this will only continue to be a charade, every season.. I don't want us to be like Arsenal (remember Henry, Van Persie, Ashley Cole..). Pool' got rid of Sterling, Suarez, and now look. Big clubs get rid of discontented players and move on, because it happens.

I absolutely love watching Pogba play, and it's so very sad that it hasn't really worked out. He's awesome, and he is still playing in Third gear I feel! I think he represents another type of player, he doesn't see being the best etc as something that he so concerned about.

See what he does this season, try and recoup transfer fee, reduce the wage bill and move on. Van der Beek, Grealish will have a say in things. They are not at his level, but I doubt if we will replace like-for-like. Be happy to be proven wrong though!
Hopefully we fully challenge for the league and we can see.
 

Jeffthered

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He plays very well when he's not burdened with massive expectations, he adds so much to a well organised team. He's a luxury player in that sense, you need to have a good team to fully reap the benefits of having Pogba, he's not a man to carry a team on his back.
I think this has often been a problem, an inflated level of expectation for Pogba. How many players, across World football, could you currently say are 'carrying' their respective team on their back? CR7 has inspired his national team in previous years, and Messi has been a flagship player, especially since Neymar and Suarez departed... but current players, and their clubs, now, carrying their team?

I can't think of any...
 

Le Red

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I think this has often been a problem, an inflated level of expectation for Pogba. How many players, across World football, could you currently say are 'carrying' their respective team on their back? CR7 has inspired his national team in previous years, and Messi has been a flagship player, especially since Neymar and Suarez departed... but current players, and their clubs, now, carrying their team?

I can't think of any...
I'd say Bruno carried us for a while and inspired others to pick up the pace and that's a big reason why we are where we are.
He turned out to be everything we expected Pogba to be.
I agree Pogba had subpar teammates and performs better when all the pressure is somewhere else than on himself, but he should, and could have, done more. Right now, when it comes the time to find a suitor, we finally see what he could have done all this time.
Great player, but the shittiest attitude in our shirt.
 

The Firestarter

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I think this has often been a problem, an inflated level of expectation for Pogba. How many players, across World football, could you currently say are 'carrying' their respective team on their back? CR7 has inspired his national team in previous years, and Messi has been a flagship player, especially since Neymar and Suarez departed... but current players, and their clubs, now, carrying their team?

I can't think of any...
Jack Grealish. Carried villa to stay in the PL last season.
 

Gasolin

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If we win the title, that will change Pogba's stance. Also, Pogba is too unique. Nobody is like him. If he leaves, we will have to change the way we play, and it will be painful. And with him, in this form, we are talking about a title winning playing style potentially.
 

MIC_FIN

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Don't usually comment on such mediocre shit, related to transfers.

He's happy if he's playing well, if the team is winning. Not so much when we are sat in 6th place?

His agent wants literally dropping off a cliff. Not the cliff of Richard. Just any cliff.

Actually, I never inserted anything of any relevance to this thread. Duly fecking noted.
 

croadyman

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Ya the replacement's name is Jack Grealish.
Think it looks very much like we go for Jack if Pogba leaves (as expected) but if he has a complete change of heart and stays then see us going for Jadon instead as we would then have enough midfield creativity
 

Flying high

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Think it looks very much like we go for Jack if Pogba leaves (as expected) but if he has a complete change of heart and stays then see us going for Jadon instead as we would then have enough midfield creativity
Surely we need Sancho either way. Getting a Pogba replacement when he goes shouldn't reduce our other incomings.

At least, we shouldn't let the Glazers off on that basis.
 

croadyman

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Surely we need Sancho either way. Getting a Pogba replacement when he goes shouldn't reduce our other incomings.

At least, we shouldn't let the Glazers off on that basis.
Maybe but not going to sign both in the same window
 

Red_toad

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Find a way to keep Pogba and it'll suddenly be a lot more likely that we get Haaland, with the Raiola influence.
You seriously think we need to increase Raiola’s influence at the club? Jeez this place at times. Pogba is gone in the summer, he’s turning it on to gain attention and attract a certain caliber of club. If he’d carried on as he were he’d be stuck here until the end of his contract.
 

berbatrick

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I think this has often been a problem, an inflated level of expectation for Pogba. How many players, across World football, could you currently say are 'carrying' their respective team on their back? CR7 has inspired his national team in previous years, and Messi has been a flagship player, especially since Neymar and Suarez departed... but current players, and their clubs, now, carrying their team?

I can't think of any...
Kane before Son's last year. Bruno. Haaland since he arrived at Dortmund.
Harder to find midfielders, only ones I can think of are Xavi and Pirlo with their national teams, Zidane 2006, and, to be controversial, Pogba at the start of Ole's time.
 

wolvored

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Pogba has never poured cold water on Raiolas comments so they must be both thinking the same. Play good for half a season and RM Barca PSG etc will come a calling. If we get £40 mill offered in the summer, he will be gone imo
 

ghaliboy

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I haven't watched the last few games but surely this is shop window stuff at the moment after Raiola's comments? Isn't it obvious as his stock was Mariana Trench level low prior to this little window of games.
 

Yakuza_devils

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I think Raiola comments were to help Pogba to get a new improved contract here.

Leave it till the end of the season for negotiation. If Pogba can help us win the league we should keep him in order not change too much of the core from the winning team.

If he stay we should forget about Grealish. We need to get Haaland and CB in the summer as top priority
 

RedRonaldo

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He is the man on mission. Make no mistake, he has already decided to leave by end of season. But he surely doesn’t want to be brand as failure/flop in England, therefore he will work his best to win us another major trophy before we part ways.
 

Red Devil's Advocate

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Performances are more like a signal to the prospective buyers. Irrespective, Ole will continue to use him against the low block teams as we can do with some muscle in the final 3rd and his casual approach won't come back to haunt us in those matches as much, since he often loses possession so cheaply when no one expects him to.
 

TsuWave

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I'd say Bruno carried us for a while
Bruno has never carried shit. That's a myth. Yes, he's an important player, but last season both Rashford & Martial recorded their best seasons, and Greenwood broke through as one of the most promising footballers in world football. The insane amount of pens he scored were more often than not carved by those same players.

That's not a slight on Bruno, but there aren't many, if any, football players carrying teams.
 

ghaliboy

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Bruno has never carried shit. That's a myth. Yes, he's an important player, but last season both Rashford & Martial recorded their best seasons, and Greenwood broke through as one of the most promising footballers in world football. The insane amount of pens he scored were more often than not carved by those same players.

That's not a slight on Bruno, but there aren't many, if any, football players carrying teams.
Yeah, I don't think anyone is buyin' it bud.
 

yumtum

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Guy is pulling an Adebayor, this is probably the best we've seen him since Ole first took charge.

If we give him a number contract he'll be coasting for the next 4 years...United and Pogba need to capitalise on his good form and part ways.

Shame as he's a great player when it suits him.
 

talking robot

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I fear United might try to get him to sign a new bumper deal if we win the title or come close. I truly hope this doesn't happen. Would love us to win the league, see him off to Madrid or PSG, and use the money and wage space to bring in Grealish, Haaland, or Sancho (not to mention a CB and DM).
 

Red & White

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In a perfect world he’d be on fire for the rest of the season, taking us to a league title and then dropping his agent and declaring his love for the club. Hopefully this form continues.
 

mattsville

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His comment just before the lockdown that he needed a new challenge was no surprise, it did not take a football observing genius to see his body language on the pitch and those sub par performances continued, then even recently that agent of his said he is done here that was fairly damning. People saying that it is his agent not him need to wake up, they are a double act and always have been, he is paying this guy to represent him, if the agent says something like that to harm his chances of staying at the club he really wants to be at, what the feck? Would you not do something about that? Something defo happened after that comment by the agent, I would say it is highly likely that he has a gentleman's agreement to leave but will put a shift in in the meantime. If you want to be optimistic about the situation you could say he is now motivated by the position of the team to compete at the top (but we are out of the CL) and he now wants to stay and sign a new contract, time will tell, but as I said before, as long as he keeps producing like this until the end of the season it's a plus, but given the comments from him, his agent and the infuriating body language on the pitch for so long when you know just how good a player he is, I would say Ole is done with it, keep his value as high as possible, sell and reinvest.
 

Mr Smith

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I have no problem with him trying to put himself in the shop window with good performances. If he plays like this between now and the end of the season and adds 20-30 mil to his price tag, I'll consider it a great outcome.
 

croadyman

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I have no problem with him trying to put himself in the shop window with good performances. If he plays like this between now and the end of the season and adds 20-30 mil to his price tag, I'll consider it a great outcome.
Yeah so would I and means a bit more money
 

Ali Dia

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In a perfect world he’d be on fire for the rest of the season, taking us to a league title and then dropping his agent and declaring his love for the club. Hopefully this form continues.
that’s it. I haven’t loved Pogbas time here but I can see when he turns it on he’s able to do things that nobody else can. I can also see how we recruited badly around him and how that would be frustrating when you want to win stuff. He’s a match winner and there aren’t that many of them around. He just needs that consistency and real desire to do it over a whole season. I’m usually shouting at the telly telling Pogba to get stuck in and press but he’s actually picked it up a lot recently and he’s obviously easy on the eye when he gets going. I don’t think himself and Bruno are a perfect fit together but they could and should still improve. I think we missed a trick not getting a DM last summer and we should be looking to buy someone in this window to let Pogba get forward more.

Real world he’s off. Let’s hope we get a lot of money and we replace him well because he’s probably going to look amazing again wherever he ends up next.His heart just was never fully in it here.
 
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NoPace

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Yeah, I don't think anyone is buyin' it bud.
If pushed but without doing any actual research, I would guess only Bruno and Grealish and probably Zaha, Kane and maybe Vardy are so valuable to their teams that betting lines would see a season ending injury at the halfway mark of the season drop more than say 3 spots in the Table. Van Dijk is excellent, but Liverpool are still in 2nd. De Bruyne-less City likely still end up in a CL spot. Tempting to pick a system player like Coady or Phillips but I think those teams have shown enough to suggest it wouldn't be more than a 2-3 spot drop.
 

TheNewEra

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I don't understand Pogba, when he gives interviews he clearly loves United, but then the noise from Raiola just seems like he wants out