SIR ALEX FERGUSON had to admit defeat with Juan Sebastian Veron.
Louis van Gaal had to do the same with Angel Di Maria. Now Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have to concede it is over with Paul Pogba.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must finally part ways with Paul Pogba after the midfielder disrespected Man Utd againCredit: PA:Press Association
Sir Alex Ferguson gave Juan Sebastian Veron numerous chances but cut ties after just two yearsCredit: PA:Press Association
The club record signing is not working out — and it is time to take a hit. Pogba has been disrespecting Manchester United again during this international break, talking about how much better it is being away with France.
There are echoes of Veron, who was a British record £28.1million signing from Lazio in 2001.
Two seasons later he was off to Chelsea for £15m. That did not work either. He just never got used to English football.
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That extra second or two the Argentine was afforded on the ball in Serie A was denied him here and he could not cope.
Every time he went away on international duty, cages would be rattled. Quotes would come back which suggested he was unhappy and wanted a return to Italy.
Mis-translated claimed United. What? Every time? Who was this translator?
Only in the slower more patient realms of the Champions League did Veron look more at home. But flopped on the biggest of nights in the semi-final, second leg in 2002 away to Bayer Leverkusen.
Despatched into the No 10 role Ryan Giggs had played in so well in the 2-2 first leg, Veron went missing in the second. It finished 1-1 and Ferguson’s dream final against Real Madrid at Hampden Park was gone.
When the team touched down early the next morning at Manchester airport, Veron looked close to tears in the arrivals hall.
Ferguson blamed it all on the media, claiming he was criticised just because he was Argentinian.
The week after that European exit the Scot also stormed out of a highly-charged press conference shouting ‘he’s a f****** great player . . . youse are f****** idiots’.
At the end of the following season during a US tour, Veron finally departed.
That was just days after the club press officer had informed us that the manager was not speaking to us because we kept writing Veron was going to be sold.
Di Maria looked like he would bring the wow factor back to United they had been missing since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure.
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Signed in August 2014 for a club-record £59.7m he was United’s player of the month in September and regarded as one of the worst buys in the club history by the following May.
Not because he was Argentinian but for his flaky displays not helped by the restraints LVG put on his attacking instincts.
So after one season he was off to Paris Saint-Germain for £44m.
Good value claimed the club based on the fact that he had signed a five-year deal and they had him for a year — like a mortgage then, got it.
Now we come to Pogba. Nobody is picking on him or singling him out. It is just when a club plays a then world-record £89m for you and that club is United the spotlight is brighter.
Like Veron he came from Serie A and wants more time and does not get it. Unlike Veron he has had four-and-a-bit seasons to adjust and find his place in a United team and failed to do so.
Pogba would be cut more slack if his public pronouncements were not so insulting to United.
His claim in the summer of 2019 that he wanted a new challenge was effectively a transfer request.
But nobody would stump up the £180m United wanted for a player who had become a world champion in their charge. Now nobody will get close to offering what United paid, nearly everyone is skint.
So instead Pogba sounds like he just wants to play for France, who do not have to come up with a transfer fee. As he said last week while with Les Bleus: “It’s like a window that opens up. It’s a breath of fresh air when you come here.”
Sounds like an advert for Febreze. He went on: “We have a truly fantastic squad. When we come here, we’re all happy.
“We really enjoy ourselves on the pitch. That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy ourselves at club level but it’s not the same here. We’re a real family and we have so much fun when we come here.” Bless.
The reaction from United fans on social media to his new-found utopia was sadly not of a similar vein. Like those record-breaking buys before him he has become a problem, an unwanted side-show.
They just need to take another hit, any takers?
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
