Paul Pogba will probably go down as one of the biggest enigmas of the Premier League era. How the world’s most expensive footballer, returning to play for arguably the biggest club on the planet, failed to shine when Manchester United needed him most.
The France international, who during his time at United won the World Cup and the Nations League, never matched his Bleus performances with those in a red shirt.
He was meant to rejuvenate an ailing squad, carry it forward and return silverware to Old Trafford.
But whereas the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Kevin De Bruyne led their respective clubs Liverpool and Manchester City into a new era of domination, Pogba never became the leader United hoped he would be.
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As he gets ready to leave Manchester, the finger can be pointed plenty of places for United’s failures – both at the player and the club. Pogba has his critics but a severe lack of structure or planning at Old Trafford in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, a willingness to splash cash under Jose Mourinho without any sense of future trajectory, and the lack of squad cohesion throughout Pogba’s second stint in Manchester have all worked against him.
Not a single manager has fully unlocked his potential in countless systems. Or, perhaps to put it another way, Pogba has failed to live up to his billing given numerous chances.
In his upcoming Amazon documentary titled the ‘The Pogmentary’ – a pun almost as embarrassing as the #Pogback tag used when he rejoined United in 2016 – Pogba explains why he is leaving United despite recently being offered a £300,000-a-week contract.
“My thought process is to show Manchester [United] that they made a mistake in waiting to give me a contract,” says the Frenchman. “And to show other clubs that Manchester had made a mistake in not offering me a contract.”
In this, he is referring to the fact United were willing to leave negotiations late and risk Pogba’s contract running down during the talks, rather than sign him up swiftly to another deal.
Meanwhile his agent, Mino Raiola – who died after a long illness in April this year – is filmed saying: “We must try to make you feel as good as when you are with the French national team. You’re different with them. You understand? You’re another Pogba with the Manchester United team. It’s not normal.
“With the France team, you’re the real Pogba, the Pogba of Juventus, the Pogba that everyone loves. With Manchester, there’s something blocking you.”
How to watch The Pogumentary
The Pogumentary was released on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 17 June 2022. Viewers with an Amazon Prime Video subscription can watch the entire documentary, which is billed as “You know the footballer. Discover the man.”
Exposed in these words is the attitude of the modern day elite footballer. You show me I’m wanted and I’ll work for you. The suggestion is that United just needed to show their £89m midfielder some love when considering how much of a pay rise to offer the £290,000-a-week midfielder. Fans would argue any wage increase would be undeserved reward for six years of failure.
And yet when Pogba arrived back at Old Trafford four years after he’d left for Juventus on a free transfer, now a newly-minted midfield star with the world at his feet, there was no suggestion he’d need “love” to encourage him towards trophies.
Indeed, it seemed as though that destiny was already laid out for him.
“The thing with me is I only think about the pitch,” Pogba said in his first interview after penning his United contract.
“I want to do great, I want to be one of the best, I want to win titles, I want to achieve things and that’s all; that’s why I came here, just to do this, to become one of the best and to win titles because I know this club has to win titles.
“This club is created to win titles, to win things, to win big things. I just focus on this and that’s it. I’m just ready to go and work on that and just kill it.”
Kill it he has done, but not in the way he intended. Like it or not, Pogba came to signify the malaise that now hangs over Old Trafford. One Europa League and a League Cup win in his first season is not much to be proud of, considering United’s standing in world football.
It was his signing that was meant to stop the rot brought on by David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho. Winning cups wasn’t enough. League titles was what was required. The summer of 2016 was to be the lowest depth this club would plummet, and with Pogba at the helm they would sail into a new, trophy-laden era.
But if the last six years has taught us anything, it’s that United is a shell of what it once was. The fighting spirit of Ferguson has well and truly evaporated. United are not feared anymore.
It is a club that prioritises hashtags over trophies, and in Pogba they got the ultimate marketing figure. That’s now on display again in The Pogumentary. What a shame that his “destiny” would be nothing more than that.
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