the context:
back in the summer of 2016, Pogba had all of world footballing in the palm of his hands. He was as exuberant of a player as he was a character being 1 of a kind. What did he do? He decides to go back to his academy days club despite it being poorly run from top to bottom. Long gone are the glory days but he was promised there would be a project built around him to make his decision of joining worthwhile. For the first 3 odd seasons, the club wasn’t able to hold up their end of the bargain for what they wished to Paul. At the same time, he was playing through injuries, frustrations of being let down of those promises, being made the scapegoat for all the teams lack of successes while also being held captive in the sense the team would not sell him even when he did portray he was not enjoying his time. Virtually had no teammates close to his level/ceiling so imagine how that feels, a supposed project yet being left stranded as a player who simply cannot do it all by himself.
Then comes in Ole. Pogba having had over 2 years under him, the rotten stench inside the club is slowly uprooted and a proper vision is laid into motion. It progresses but slowly in due time. From being the stand alone star player bar De Gea for a number of seasons to now being surrounded with the likes of other such stars in Bruno, Cavani, Shaw, Maguire, Varane, AWB, Rashford, Sancho.
…point being, it took Pogba over half the duration of his contract when he signed back with United to start seeing any sort of sustainable progress / those promises. So him being unhappy in certain moments - is it really that far fetched to see why? And it leaves a great dilemma that he will have to a give a big think over, now that steam has picked up and the progress in clear backing of the right kinds of players is there to be seen for all.
he was football’s brightest young star when he left Juventus. He was left disappointed from United’s end for 3 years. The last 2 they have been making amends by becoming stronger. And now in the final season of his contract, he truly has a situation on his hands that no one can honestly blame whichever direction he chooses to go. Maybe he has a sour taste in his mouth from the early years and wants out, maybe he appreciates the recent efforts but still feels it’s too little too late, or maybe he even changes his mind as the year plays out and decides the work done has won him back over.
in any scenario, let’s please stop vilifying the man and at the minimum see the human element to it all. The roller coaster of emotions and such is quite literally what any normal person would think so let’s not pretend to be shocked in any way. I for one will be glad whatever he decides to do and have been able to appreciate his efforts having stuck around all this time