United beat the Canaries 3-2 (thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo pulling them out of the mud alone again), but the song in the stands was not very positive. The feeling against Glazer had been established long before Pogba and others took their share of the butterflies from the rooftops. However, Pogba cut off his usual relaxed silhouette and impressed with a few moments of outrageous skill on the pitch. He was comfortably United’s best midfielder in the show, although he was left without a goal or assist in the 74th minute and the signings of veterans Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic made a significant difference. After full time, he showed the fans his opinion about their ridicule. READ MORE: Paul Pogba breaks his silence after being ridiculed by Manchester United fans It was like Pogba’s career in a nutshell: flashes of talent, involved in a chaotic and unimpressive United performance, and a minimal end product for everything. Drop the welcome he got from the fans and you have it all summed up. The relationship between Pogba and United fans has been frozen for three years. A similar incident happened almost three years ago in Old Trafford under similar circumstances. United were passive and poor in a game against rivals who reached the Premier League when they faced Cardiff City in May 2019. That day they actually lost 2-0 and Pogba was at the end of the Stratford Ed rage. Later that summer, while touring with his Adidas sponsors, Pogba publicly described his desire for a “new challenge”, waving his eyelashes in the direction of the “dream” Real Madrid team – at the time he was managing the idol of the medium, Zinedine Zidane. The truth is that United should have severed ties with the player at that time. Pogba had played well enough in the 2018/19 season to have a steady paycheck (probably over 100 100 million in that climate before Covid), but not well enough to inspire United to finish higher than sixth. However, he was a marketer, a Glazer Marquis who signed three summers earlier and was favored by then-boss Ole Gunnar Solskier. The Norwegian attempted his own cultural resurgence of the club and saw Pogba, a domestic player and of course instinctively attacking, as part of his revolution. Almost nothing has gone well for Pogba and United since then, they rule out a decent improvement in form after the lockdown in the summer of 2020. It is quite a statistic that Pogba has scored just four league goals for the club since April 2020. The very abused Fred – who offers a lot more defenders to the team than Pogba – has achieved the same number just this season. Pogba will leave United this summer with only the medals of the Europa League and League Cup winners around his neck. He is now 29 and, with his talent, he should have won many league titles at club level. But it is not only Pogba who is to blame for this sad series of events. The club and Solskier would have to be brave enough to get rid of him in 2019 – although it is easy to say afterwards, as United’s midfield was weak even then. Pogba had an impact on France’s victory in the World Cup in 2018 and scored a purple uniform after Solskier replaced Jose Mourinho in early 2019. But United made another mistake when they turned on the option for an extra year on Pogba’s contract, apparently to protect his resale value. They did not want to lose him for free when it became clear that a new long-term contract was off the table. News flash: United will lose him for free. Pogba and Mino Raiola’s agent have fed up with United. “The season is not over yet, but almost because we have no other titles to play,” Pogba said last month in another interview condemning United’s failures. “I want to win titles, to play for something this year and in recent years we have not won a title. It is sad.” Pogba’s entire time at United since 2016 has been rather sad. Despite the goodwill, intentions and talent, both the player and the club have made a lot of mistakes in almost every way. This last sad chapter at Old Trafford is just another reminder – not that United need it anymore – that it’s time to part ways. Subscribe to the United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season. Read more related articles Read more related articles
